Life before Death
by Dameon-grey
Summary: This is Ulquiorra's life, before Hueco Mundo, his life as Ichigo witnesses almost first hand. What questions will this raise and how much more complicated will the Espada become to them all? I'm going to rewrite a most of this story, but not the plot. Owo
1. Chapter 1

This is, for my liking, Ulquiorra's life, before his death. I have put a lot of effort and research into this very first submission, and I hope you all like. I've been procrastinating any submissions because I've been so nervous about it and have, honestly, had no idea where to start. I hope this way was the right way. Enjoy. ^w^

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[[Childhood]]

"We'll give it to you… if you let us play with you." The older boy winked, looking down at the smaller Ulquiorra with his friends. Ulquiorra knew what they meant, he knew very well what they meant. He was shorter, a year or two younger than most of them, but those hormones were surely making themselves known to him, slowly. These boys were marinating in them, they were no longer tender, but overcooked. Men were wise to keep their daughters safe with their mothers, but these boys were trouble.

"So? Come on, what's it gonna be?" The boy snickered, reaching his arm around Uqluiorra's waist. One of them had come up from behind Ulquiorra trapping him between them all, rubbing himself into the young Ulquiorra's back.

He could feel his cheeks burn, his head swoon lightly and he nodded. He felt that same hand suddenly loosen the tie about his waist, the fine gold string slipping and his chiton falling loose, hanging from his small shoulders.

"Gods, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a woman!" The boy laughed, while several hands played over Ulquiorra's body, his hips and his chest, he hadn't hit any growth spurts yet, his little boy fat had yet to evenly distribute itself across his body. They played with his pseudo-breasts and nipples, flicking them, squeezing what little fat and muscle there was up into cleavage and then letting it fall flat again "You see? If it weren't for this, you'd be a woman!" The boy pulled at him, small though he was, he'd long since grown stiff.

"Come on, make some sounds!" Another boy nagged, wetting his finger and then crudely sliding it between Uqluiorra's ass cheeks and up inside him. This registered as new to the boy, he yelped and leaned on the one in front of him, the oldest one, then gasping once he felt his erection brush over another stronger one.

The scene that Ichigo witnessed was, to say the least, unpleasant, but satisfying. Seeing Ulquiorra at a much more vulnerable age, seeing him when he was not in control, new and inexperienced. It helped him to understand though, the understanding that Ulquiorra learned early on that he could have anything, if he only paid the price.

The Ulquiorra afterwards was tired, but pleased, he had a satisfied grin on his face, holding a piece of Jewelry close to himself. _Bulla. _The word suddenly fell into Ichigo's mind, like he'd known it all along, but obviously he hadn't. He only seemed to recognize the unspoken word though, he didn't find anything of his knowledge about what a bulla was.

This bulla, that Ulquiorra was holding, was a blackened locket that hung from the finest gold chain Ichigo had ever seen. The boy pulled it away from his embrace and out in front of him while his smile faded, examining it. At first he made sure that there were no smudges on it's blackened gold surface, then he smiled again, opening the locket, nothing was inside.

The boy stopped on the corner of a small road before turning down into an alleyway. He wrapped the gold chain around his neck four times. Obviously, for his small boyish body, it was too long to simply wear once around his neck, he had to wrap it four times before fastening it. Although in doing this, Ichigo noted, the locket was pulled tightly up into his collar bone, it sat, nestled against the hard lumps, a black mass. It was an eerie sight.

Once he was satisfied, he continued down into the alley way. At the end, a small home sat in the middle of its path, the door to this small home opened, and for a second Ichigo felt the desire to withdraw his hand, he felt the need to look around in his room back in the present to make sure Inoue hadn't just wandered into Ulquiorra's vision. For in the doorway, before the young Ulquiorra, stood a short woman, with a warm smile on her face, which was framed by long strands of hair. Her hair, was a brilliant red, but the sun had licked every dark strand from it, and added its own vibrancy and glow. She stood on the step and held her hands out to him, her smile saying "Welcome home" and the already cheery Ulquiorra dashed towards her feet and buried his face in her food stained chiton, laughing and hugging her.

Once inside the home, before any sort of meal or prayer, Ulquiorra and his mother made their way towards the back of the home, into a small room filled with steam. Inside, there was a small pale of warm water. Next to the pale there stood a stool, linens, small vials of oils and cheap perfumes. Ulquiorra's mother turned him towards the stool and began undoing his chiton. She frowned when she found his skin under the chiton bruised, but paid it no mind. She continued to undress him and directed him to sit upon the stool, taking a cloth and dipping it in the warm water.

Ulquiorra looked far more uneasy than usual, the look on her face said that as he turned from her discretely, hiding himself from view. His mother frowned, leaning forward with the towel and soothing its warm surface over the goose bumps on his arms and shoulder.

"My angel, what is it?" Ichigo felt his physical self gasp. Her voice was soft and rich with love, it was a chocolate strum of her vocal chords, soothing over the boy, comforting him, yet in no way sounding fragile.

He shivered, pointing to his locket. "They took it from me." He snapped, feeling his anger flare up again towards those boys, but he didn't show it, it was a simple gesture of his emotions, nothing more.

"Ah, but you see, you have it back. It is yours again. Your father's locket." She smiled, examining the piece of jewelry with the fondest smile, her fingers stroking across it, and then up into Ulquiorra's long locks. "Don't worry, you got it back didn't you, you're so resourceful." She was pleased with him, for now.

As she continued to bath the boy, Ichigo could see Ulquiorra growing more concerned. As his mother proceeded down through his legs, so noticed the chafed redness of the boy's penis, realizing just what may have happened. She didn't seem to say anything, but once she'd started to clean his rear, she stood up and away from him. That soft demeanor dissolving instantly.

Ulquiorra wouldn't look at her. "_How_ did you get it back from them?" She demanded, her hands placed low on her plump hips. "What did you give them in return?!" She gasped, holding the back of her hand across her mouth.

Ulquiorra turned towards her finally and pointed at his necklace. "They wouldn't give it back! I couldn't let them just take it!" He argued but was hissed quiet by her seething glare.

"So you _gave_ yourself to them? Why? You're a man."

"I'm smaller than them-"

"You're a man!! Men have the power to rectify themselves in this world! You should know better! You shouldn't have to resort to such a disgusting deed!"

"Mother!"

"No, you'll have no meal, you'll wash yourself, ALL of yourself. I don't want you behaving like a woman, you're stronger than that! You're better than that!" She fumed.

Ulquiorra dropped a blank stare down to the tile floor as she left, slamming the door behind her. He flinched, and then sat back a bit, sniffling softly by himself. He reached for the linen, and continued to remove the _filth_ of those boys.

A rattle ran through the house. The front door had shut and Ulquiorra jumped up, his mother had left the house. He donned a dirty chiton immediately, not bothering to tie it and rushed out after her. She was fast. He didn't really have a clue where she was going, but he could guess. The boy had been a bully to him for years now, she was headed for his home, he knew it.

Once he'd caught up with her, he heard her angry accusations and the laughing of onlookers in the streets, most of which men, or men accompanying women.

"Rape? Rape?! How dare you accuse my son of such a thing!" The boy's father was red, his turnip face swelling and jutting out at her.

"You should hold your tongue _woman_, I would watch yourself in this city! With no husband to protect you, you're awfully vulnerable to be throwing around such accusations! Only the words of a barbarian!" he growled at her, at that moment Ulquiorra had rushed up and was tugging at her arms.

"Mother enough." He gasped, wishing she would stop.

She turned on him, and without warning lifted the back of his chiton, showing his bruised rump to the father of his enemy. "Look at what they did to him! He's all red and bruised, bite marks, scratches. What kind of a monster did you raise?" Her body Jolted against Ulquiorra as he slapped her, the force throwing her to the ground, when Ulquiorra turned to see his face, he felt the danger being emitted from him. The man was angry, and eyeing the boy's rear. He quickly tugged his chiton down helped his mother to her feet, steadying her as best he could.

"Come on…" He told her, she wept. She cradled the side of her face as they left the man's doorstep.

On their way home, only his mother's soft sobs were heard, he was quiet, he was thinking, planning. She had started something terrible, and Ulquiorra was thinking up a way to stop it, if he could. That man was, as far as he could tell, now interested in him, that was useful. Ulquiorra thought of what she had told him in their bathing room but he pushed it aside. This would work, he would do whatever it took to keep them from coming after her.

As Ichigo withdrew his hand, the slight brush of his fingers against Ulquiorra's hollows hole roused a small gasp from the Espada's lips, and then he was still. Ichigo sighed, he hadn't seen that far into Ulquiorra's past before, and yet, as he did, he was glad, understanding just a little more of this creature's clouded personality.

He leaned back against the wall at that moment, shaking his head as he heard Urahara snort suddenly from his own room down the shop hall. "Orihime" he whispered softly, wondering, if, by chance, it wasn't simply an order for Ulquiorra to capture her.

He shook the thought from his mind as he realized just then how horribly exhausted he was. The strawberry haired boy pulled the white sleeping shirt over his head, it was hot inside, even with the window open. He laid himself down on the tatami mat and closed his eyes, almost instantly falling into a deep slumber.

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This will be an ongoing project of mine, I'm doing all kinds of nerdy research, and I don't mean Bleach Research. I'm doing a ton of research on Greece, which is actually really fun. XD This is my first extensive story, I hope you like it, and if you have suggestions or even just comments, that would be VERY helpful! You have no idea how long I've been working on this, trying to make it as decent as possible. So seriously, comments and reviews would be AWESOME! And yes, there is plenty more to come. Thanks for reading you guys! ^w^


	2. Beginning

Before Ichigo knew of Ulquiorra's childhood, before he knew of his heritage, the boy had died. Ichigo had turned into a demon, and killed the mighty Espada, and then he had come back from the dead, to his friends.

Ulquiorra stood before them, already dead, looking back into the sincerely deep grey eyes of the red headed girl. She smiled at him, it seemed so familiar. The Espada had felt something then that he hadn't felt in countless ages. He reached his hand out towards hers, and he asked her "Do you fear me?"

"No." She said, he couldn't hear Orihime, he heard another voice, but her face, her face completed that voice. And just as she reached her hand out towards his, their fingertips brushed, and his turned to a fine ash, and blew away.

The last thing that Ulquiorra remembered, the very last thing,

"I reject."

After that, not much remained discernable to Ichigo, he remembered voices, pains, screaming and crying. What had happened is Oirhime had quickly and hastily healed Ulquiorra, bringing him out of thin air practically. She could have easily fixed his mask, but she left it, remembering what Nel had told her, about her former Fraccion.

Like this, Ulquiorra wasn't a threat, he was still powerful, but it wouldn't take Ichigo dying and being reborn as a monster to stop him.

She brought the Arrancar back, and then healed Ishida, and last of all, Ichigo.

The shinigami awoke before Ulquiorra, in a cave. Orihime was above him, she was offering him water, which was quite possibly the most refreshing drink of water he could ever remember, as though his body had been a dried up corpse, it sent a soothing chill through his body when he swallowed it and he was able to sit up.

The two of them cried, Ichigo rarely cried at all, but knowing what he had almost done to them, what he had done to Ishida, he couldn't handle it. Orihime reassured him that Ishida was fine, that he forgave Ichigo, and at that point Ichigo noticed the pale motionless body beside him, he stared dumbfounded at it, and as Orihime explained, he pulled himself away from it, holding his chest as though a chunk of him would fall to the floor, and the nightmare would start all over again.

"What happened?" Ulquiorra heard, beside him. His neck was stiff, and every movement echoed loudly in his head. The boy, Kurosaki Ichigo was sitting against the wall, Orihime had gone. Ichigo looked weaker than ever, it was clear that he'd been healed, but the whole ordeal must have drained him, it seemed even the girl's reversal ability couldn't reverse that kind of fatigue such a transformation could put him through.

"How would I know?" His voice was gone. Ulquiorra coughed, shutting his darkened eyes, he too was fatigued from what the hollowed boy had done to him.

"I'm…. sorry that happened."

"So you knew what you did." He asked calmly, the boy nodded. "I thought so, but why didn't you stop?"

"I couldn't…"

"… I see…"

"I'm sorry."

Ulquiorra sighed softly, coughing, "You assume it's something I'm unused to…" the boy looked shocked, but he was not entirely surprised at the response.

Ulquiorra reached his hand over, slipping out from under the sheet, trembling weakly still as it reached for Ichigo's ankle. The moment it touched, he saw Ulquiorra's face, the face with those black streaks running down each cheek, vanishing. The green eyes turned to stone, and his face grew smaller, suddenly the hollows face seemed human, a representational sculpture of a human. The grains of the stone so small, the face looked smooth, and pale, and it was obvious then what it was, with a flowing stone sash draped across the sculpture's naked body, clinging to its curves, moving with stillness. Greek, was he Greek?

Ichigo drew back and saw the sculpture was standing tall, far larger than the quatra espada on the steps of a grand building. It wasn't huge, but it's architecture seemed huge. The columns reaching up, straight, topped with ornamental capitals, much more ornamental than the usual Greek columns.

"You're Greek?" He heard himself ask, then saw several men walk by him, all adorned with varying white chitons hanging off both shoulders, unlike the toga. They were trimmed with three inch trim that ranged from dark purple to deep red, a sign of members high in the senate. Ichigo hadn't known this to begin with, but the knowledge seemed to reveal itself to him. The men had white hair, some of the younger ones had black hair, but most of them had sheer white hair and creases that clung to every curve of their faces.

"Ok, so… where are you? Or am I dreaming? Did I fall asleep?" He wondered.

"Be quiet…" He heard, and shut his mouth, looking on. Clinging to the arm of a rather old looking Senate member, he saw a smiling, long raven haired boy, the same face, pale, but brighter, like he actually lived in the day light. It was him. He was Greek. How old did that make him? He wondered, it was an odd feeling now to know that he was sitting next to a Greek, not just someone who was Greek by blood, but from the grand times of Greece, Greece's highest moment in history. It had a sense of distance, Ichigo almost felt out of place, especially having fought with the hollow, even if it was a hollow, even if he and his actions had harmed so many of his friends. He wouldn't let that stop him from protecting his friends and Karakura town, but still, it made it a much more conscious decision.

The senate member laughed wholly as they made their way down the steps, he stroked the shriveled fingers of his through Ulquiorra's long hair, it looked so much different at this length, and the sun reflected dark red streaks. He followed them in through a pair of white curtains leading into a garden. The pair traveled from there into the old man's quarters, passed there to a large bath. It was clear, with these lodgings, that the man must have been high in the senate, indeed, he guessed this was in Greece's later years, closer to the on coming Roman Senate.

So he wanted to show Ichigo his heritage? Was that it? No, there was more, Ichigo swallowed hard, he knew deep down what was to come, what conversation had brought on this sharing of personal history.

The senator disrobed, he dipped his sagging body into the bath, steam rising and filling the room and all the while Ulquiorra was out of sight. Once the man was settled he saw the hollow, he was wearing a thin sheet, pulled around his shoulders, and just as his feet slipped into the wavering water the sheet fell, billowing on top of the water before sinking ever so slowly. Gleaming white skin, golden but pale, sank down into the water, the raven black head dipping under the surface a moment before emerging again, long black locks clinging to his shoulders and back. Ulquiorra turned from the man, facing Ichigo, and he blushed. He turned away but he felt his head turn, as though being forced, looking at the boy and seeing his young body, now finally, seeing his manhood. Water droplets fell, dripping down his skin one by one, the corners of his mouth turned up, he was smiling, his eyes averted to the side, as though watching the man but not looking directly at him, his head turned to one side. Around the young Greek's neck hung a mass of fine gold strands wrapped four times, they held a black locket in the center of his collar bone, resembling much of what was there now as a hollow.

"This is what I remember, so it's not entirely unknown to me, this lifestyle." Ichigo blushed, he didn't answer, he waited for the memory to stop, but it didn't. the boy reached back, his hands finding the politician's, helping the boy lower himself and his eyes closed softly, his head leaning back and a hand crept around from under his hair, stroking the soft skin of his neck, Ulquiorra's voice echoed gently in the baths and Ichigo wished it to stop, seeing his own eyes darken, feeling his chest begin to hollow. It wouldn't trigger another transformation would it? He thought. Of course not, it was just the memories, but they weren't memories Ichigo wanted, to be honest. He heard another moan and shut his eyes this time. "I can't believe you fucked me, you're too modest, too inexperienced." Ulquiorra scolded the Shinigami.

"Shut up, I couldn't stop myself, I didn't even want to."

"But you enjoyed it right?"

"I… don't remember feeling it, I just remember knowing that it was happening."

"You couldn't… feel it? Well that's not right…" He heard fabric moving, and opened his eyes, the image was gone, thank goodness. Instead Ulquiorra sat up stiffly, he hadn't his clothes so he was draped in a spare shinigami robe, just the outer layer, the black cloth making him look even paler, pale like the statue that greeted Ichigo at the start of the vision.

"What's not right?"

"It was your first time right? You should always remember your first time." It bothered Ichigo that as Ulquiorra said this, his face remained blank, like it always did, it made the statement sound more matter-of-factly, and Ichigo cursed under his breath at it. "We should correct that."

"I'll beat your ass just as I am if you even try it." Ichigo threatened, glaring at him.

"As you are?" that seemed very unlikely to the hollow, but when he tilted his head to one side it felt a little odd, it felt a little off balance to him, lighter on one side. His eyes widened and he reached a hand, still weak and trembling to feel his mask, his fingers rubbing over the large crack running straight up through the middle and the missing horn. "Oh, I see?" His gaze dropped, discouraged. Well, with his mask only half there, he wouldn't be much of a threat at all. "So she saved my life, but she left me like this?" He laughed softly.

"Hey, she showed you mercy! You should be thankful! I was about to kill you."

"After you had fun with my body, not that that's an insult to me at all, really."

"Tch…." Ichigo crossed his arms, averting his eyes out of frustration.

"So am I your new comrade? Is that what you're thinking?"

"No, she just wanted to make sure you'd be alright."

"… alright, I kidnapped her, she wanted to make sure I'm alright…." Ichigo looked at him, answering his question. "Alright…." He said as he understood, then continued to crawl towards the boy.

"I thought we were done with that, knock it off!"

He didn't say anything, Ichigo swung a fist at him but the hollow apparently wasn't to weak to block it. He used the opportunity to topple the shinigami, holding him against the wall while he straddled himself down into Ichigo's lap. Then they were still, for Ichigo it was awkward, it was far too awkward, and he still fought at the tight grasp on his wrist, but it was no use. Ulquiorra watched him, not smiling, not frowning, simply watching his prey.

"I'm not kidding, quit it." Ichigo growled, and as he did so the hollow moved in, his head leaning down beside Ichigo's and he froze, unable to move, not wanting to move, meanwhile he felt the hot breath on his neck and shivered, his breath caught, his chest fluttering, his body feeling for the first time, what it was like.

So close….

"So you're saying, you didn't feel any of this?"

The boy was silent. Uqluiorra moved his hips as he got more comfortable, but at the same time he moved nonetheless and heard the boy gasp softly, he turned to see his eyes shut and sighing to himself, moving again, grinding, his chest flush up against Ichigo's.

"I, don't think I want this…" the boy whispered.

"You don't think?" the hollow inquired, this time he drew his lips over Ichigo's neck and the boy realized just how skilled he was. "What do you think you're getting?" He asked softly, nipping at the soft flushed skin.

"Well… you said…. I should feel my first time… so I…"

"Thought I would sleep with you."

"So you're not going to? Then what are you doing?"

"Helping you feel."

"**You're** helping me feel? Isn't that a little ironic."

"I guess… but this hole doesn't mean I'm devoid of sensation." He said, taking Ichigo's hand and rubbing it over his own hollows hole, shivering in the boy's lap.

"So we're just….. feeling?"

"I'll hurt you if you don't stop talking… Do you want to feel that?"

The boy was quiet when he felt short nails scarring his chest, reaching into the kimono, opening it more, cold finger tips trailing down his belly, jumping softly as it tickled, just a little.

"Kuro…. Ichigo, are you alright?" Inoue. Ichigo froze, at that point he heard how heavily they were breathing.

"I'm fine…." He said, forcing himself to take a deep breath, sounding calm enough.

"Do you need—"

"I'm tired still, I'm going to sleep for a bit longer… Thanks Inoue…" He closed his eyes and hid his face in Ulquiorra's neck, shivering softly from suddenly having to stop, how cruel, he thought.

"Ok, I'm glad…. We're going look around a bit." And he heard her leave, the footsteps drawing away down the cave entrance, the cave seemed naturally well furnished, having small adjoining rooms here and there, there was a curtain hung over the one that they were in, and quickly enough, the echoing sound of their clothing rubbing together continued as Ulquiorra moved. He was so dominant, it surprised Ichigo, the memories he was shown, the role that Ulquiorra seemed to have chosen.

"Why…. Are you like this?" poor wording. Ulquiorra stopped and Ichigo gasped softly, quickly correcting himself. "I mean… Why… do you act like… you know… you don't seem submissive, but are you?"

"Do you want me to be?"

"No, I mean… right now, you're being…"

"Not shy? I'm used to it, most clients the first time are shy, it takes coaxing to get them in the mood."

"But you are…"

"Bottom? Usually…. Actually…. I don't know if I've ever been anything else." The hollow ceased the boy's dialogue again, biting at his ear, fingers gripping his hips and he let his own breath slip as he felt the bulge in Ichigo's hakama, pressing up against him, his eyes closed. This time Ichigo looked up, seeing Ulquiorra, biting his lip at the sight of Ulquiorra's face. He suddenly felt the hollow against his stomach to the right, reaching down his leg.

At this point Ulquiorra had to suppress a laugh, at the sudden realization that Ulquiorra was hard Ichigo covered his mouth, turning his face away, his other hand lifted up, palm facing outward as if saying Look where my hands are, I'm not doing anything naughty.

Cloth on cloth moved more vigorously, more out of struggle as Ulquiorra tried to seize Ichigo's hand, the boy knew what he was planning, but giving up the hollow arched his back, sitting up on his knees and pressing himself, erection and all against Ichigo's stomach, listening to him bite back a groan, feeling the shinigami's length jump up against his cheeks.

Now the cave room was warm, no part of them was cold and Ulquiorra's hair was beginning to slick against his face, the grinding arch against Ichigo hadn't been once, after the boy had felt it he pushed back in response, suggesting a rhythm, one that Ulquiorra welcomed. And so the two bodies pushed back against each other more eagerly.

Ichigo's hands finally found their way under Ulquiorra's arms, gripping at the black kimono, gripping tightly, pulling so that it slipped down over the hollow's shoulders and he realized finally how beautiful he was, not that it wasn't obvious within the last fifteen minutes or so, but just now, his eyes were either closed or half lidded, his mouth hung slightly, not gaping, but just enough, his head sprinkled with a tiny glaze of sweat which held his raven black hair to his white porcelain skin. The little light in the cave cast a dark shadow down over his neck and shoulders, making the deepened places in his anatomy seem deeper, more malnourished almost, and his shoulders rounded even more so than Inoue's, more than Rukia's, he seemed so feminine suddenly. His voice however, being naturally deep of course, seemed very male, the contrast between that and his feminine appearance was astounding.

At one point Ichigo put the palms of his hands against Ulquiorra who had taken over again, the rhythm speeding up. The hands pushed at him though, stopping him. "Enough….. please…" Ichigo begged. The Arrancar nodded, he remained in Ichigo's lap, but he stopped, gained control of his breathing, both of them hiding their faces in the crook of each other's neck.

Ulquiorra stood up finally, and opened the kimono right in front of Ichigo simply to retie it, adjusting it to look normal once more. The boy had turned, gasping loudly and closing his eyes, one hand in his lap, holding himself down from view while his other hand sat useless, pressed to the floor beside him.

"I'm going to bathe, don't finish yourself in here, they'll smell it, and I don't want to sleep in that smell." He said before turning to leave.

Ichigo growled after him, "And what does that mean?!"

"It simply means I don't want to sleep in a cave that smells like your semen and sweat."

The remark shut Ichigo up, and he cursed under his breath before standing, rubbing himself, or pushing himself down and out of view, but that led to rubbing still, and so he stopped.

Back in the shop, the strawberry haired boy stopped typing. He rubbed his eyes, and then the insides of his thighs, not daring to venture any closer. Recounting the whole ordeal was enough to drive him nuts. With a slumbering hollow beside him, he didn't want to be caught like that. Ichigo sighed and turned off the monitor, moving to lay down.

"You'll turn the other half off, right? It makes odd noises at night." Ulquiorra asked him. He was awake, and he didn't sound groggy, so he'd been awake for a while. Ichigo hesitated, swallowing hard before he turned the screen back on, saving what he had typed up thus far before shutting down his computer, it's screen going blank.

"… night." He said, before laying himself down, wondering if he'd be able to peer into Ulquiorra's visions again. Although as he waited, he himself slipped off. Perhaps another night then.


	3. Return Home

**Chapter III**

What had happened when they returned, when the mission was a, success, of sorts, Ichigo had been gone for doing much more than just rescuing her. Even some of them had fallen into the hands of their enemies, and needed rescuing.

Uquiorra was on the other side. He still didn't understand why he was here. The last thing he could remember, before fading away into the dusty air,

"I reject." She said as she saved him.

The cave had been a curious vision to awake to, and what had followed in the cave was even more so curious.

His mask was damaged. Like Nel, his strength practically cut in half, he was no longer a threat to them it seemed. The weight on him was lighter without it though. What was left was the bottom most shell with no horn protruding from the left side of his head, it had broken clean off, the part of the mask that was a sheath down the side of his head was jagged and mostly gone. He wondered if she'd done it deliberately.

They had spent the last three days in the cave, recovering and waiting for others to return from the battle. Mostly, they slept, Ichigo and him, until finally they were all back, gathered, and heading back through the great rift, into the living world.

Orihime smiled to him when they stepped through, an encouraging smile, welcoming him to his new home. The two exiled shinigami, Kisuke Urahara and Shihouin Yoruichi, who met them didn't seem surprised in the least. Perhaps a glance at each other, followed by grins and overfriendly pats on the back.

Perhaps the blonde haired man hadn't quite the curiosity to match the new head of Science back in Sereitei, but his appetite seemed somewhat larger to the others when he had a chance to pull Ulquiorra into the shop. The man had him sitting in a chair, looking at his mask, holding small, what looked like makeshift, devices up to it. He poked and prodded and read the Arrancar's reiatsu, what was left of it anyway, Ulquiorra gave him a clear reading, no use in hiding it anymore.

He was somewhat thankful with the outcome of his new lodgings when he found out where they'd sent Grimmjow. *Although Ishida showed his strong disapproval of animal testing in Mayuri's lab.

"Kurosaki Kuuun, why don't you stay for the _fes-ti-vi-ties,_" The blonde haired man spoke with an odd tone and enunciation added on to the word "festivities."

The teen rubbed the back of his head timidly, not looking the blonde man in the eyes. "Well actually, Urahara, I-I will stay, I don't… feel like going home just yet," He admitted. This seemed to please Urahara even more so.

The lot of them gathered into the small shop, tossing stories and jokes about and gocking over food that the tiniest girl there, Ururu, had whipped up for them all. Alcohol was passed around among the adults, some of it pushed into the hands of the lively underage heroes.

Ulquiorra had taken to sitting cross legged on a small pillow out of the way, watching them all interact, it had been so long since he'd been around, anything human. The hollow watched the tall redhead as he was cheered on into the bottom of a ceramic bottle of sake. The taller Sado was looking, confused, into the palm of his hand, down at some curious items that the pink haired pixie, Yachiru, had just set there.

Ulquiorra stiffened when he spotted her rushing over to him. She pointed with big open eyes and a giant gaping mouth. "Baaatto!" She announced clearly over them all. Most of them laughed, her tall captain waved a hand at her to leave Ulquiorra alone, before he himself gave the Arrancar a sneering wink, but not after she'd shoved a bowl of sweets into his lap as an offering of peace. "It's too bad your horn is gone!" She chimed back to him, "Ken chan would have loved to play with you!" She was ushered out the door and he felt them both leave, their reiatsu returning home.

Ulquiorra was looking down into that bowl, confused, and then he felt a brush of hair against his arm. Orihime sat down beside him, smiling at him, having recovered from laughing over Yachiru's exclamations. "She means well, I promise." She reassured him.

"Don't they all?" He asked her curiously, but she didn't seem to take it as a question, she only smiled more sweetly, plucking a piece of candy out of his bowl and unwrapping it, popping it in her mouth. Ulquiorra follow suit, picking a piece out and unwrapping it, awkwardly, finally popping it into his mouth. His eyes shut tight, it was tangy and sour. He couldn't say much for the culinary specialties of any members of Hueco Mundo, but this burst of flavor was almost too much for him and something deep inside his jaw twinged painfully. He clapped his hand to the right side of his jaw and began nursing it.

Orihime laughed, standing for a moment and reaching an arms length to a table that had short glasses of water with mishappened cubes in them. She handed him a glass and he immediately washed down the assault of flavor on his mouth.

Ichigo sat down beside Orihime, a slight blush in his cheeks, Ulquiorra thought for a moment that the modest teenager was still antsy about what had taken place in the cave, but a cup with fruity colored juice and a chemical aroma wafting out of the top taught him otherwise.

"Kurosa-Ichigo!" Orihime gasped, trying to grab the glass from him.

"No! Inoue come on! This is special!, In fact, you're the one we went there for, you especially should be drinking!" He encouraged her, offering his glass.

She puffed her cheeks out and shook her head. "No! That's disgusting! It tastes so awful, I can't see how you can stand it!" She stood from between the two of them and stormed off.

Ichigo stared after her, befuddled for a moment. She'd always been so shy towards him, so kind hearted and careful not to upset him, or anyone for that matter. He'd never known her to be short. Ichigo leaned over to Ulquiorra. "You'll soon understand why I find her statement ironic."

The hollow only looked after her curiously. "You mean to say, in some way she's disgusting?" He tried to clarify what he thought Ichigo was saying.

"No." A deeper voice sat down beside Ulquiorra. Sado was also staring after her. "He means that… what that woman concocts on a stove with a seemingly endless array of ingredients at her fingertips, can be described as nothing less than disgusting." His voice was a foreboding drone, as though warning Ulquiorra of his time yet to come… again.

"You, don't appreciate her efforts?" He asked.

"Well… there's a limit, you have to understand what comes first, your friend's culinary prowess, or lack there of, or your _life_." He finished, taking a sip of his fruity beverage.

"I'm sure you'll be expected at school tomorrow, Ichigo, with the rest of us finally back and all." Sado reminded Ichigo as he tossed his last bit of sake back.

"You can tell them all that we went to the Americas and I caught a parasite." Ichigo giggled into his cup softly, setting it down noisily.

"To them you haven't gone anywhere, remember Kon?" Sado reminded him before returning to Ichigo's joke. "The urethra dwelling kind?" Sado teased the strawberry teen.

"Ourethra?" Ulquiorra questioned for a moment, quirking his head. "I understand the concept of language evolution over the millennia, but, does that still mean the same thing?" He asked the darker teen sitting beside him. _Parasites of the ourethra, sounds far less than pleasant._

It took Sado a moment to understand what he'd just asked, but he finally nodded, smirking a little. "Yeah, it's a parasite that lives off of your body, and it gains entrance through _there_." He laughed as Ichigo threw him a scathing '_don't you dare'_ look.

"How is that spelled?" Another voice had joined them, the glare of Ishida's glasses catching the arrancar in the face for a moment.

Ishida pushed them up and diverted the light from Ulquiorra. "O, u, r, e, t, h, r, a." Ulquiorra watched him as the Quincy pieced it all together.

"That's… Greek. I mean I know some Greek words, but, your question just struck me as a little odd. Do you speak it fluently?" He asked, sitting down across from the three of them. This all seemed far too friendly for Ulquiorra, and he found himself shifting nervously in place to get more comfortable.

"Oh yeah!" A buzzed Ichigo chimed in, his eyes wide with excitement. "He's Greek!" Ishida looked unphased by the information, until Ichigo continued. "Like, not just by heritage, but time wise, he's from old ancient Greece!"

Finally the eyes behind coke bottle glasses widened, Ishida turned to Ulquiorra, no longer seeing him as a potential threat, but an exceptional interest. "Hellenistic?" he asked.

"Ex-cuse me?" Ulquiorra's response was only confused.

"Or Classical? Or Archaic?" His voice grew louder as he drew further back in the Grecian timeline.

"I don't know what you're asking." The hollow stated flatly.

"The Archaic period was 9th to 6th, Classical was 5th to 4th, and I think Hellenistic was 3rd BCE to 6th century CE." The only look he got was one of further confusion. Ishida almost smacked his hand into his glassed, "Wait, I'm sorry, You don't know what I'm saying, do you…" He felt truly stupid. "Of course you wouldn't understand what any of those meant."

Ulquiorra only shook his head, as did Ichigo, and Renji, who had come by to offer Ichigo and them all another glass each.

"About two years before my death Alexander of Macedon died." He gave Ishida that bit of info to work with, _if _the great General had made it into history.

"Alexander… the Great?" Ishida's eyes widened. "That's… the 4th century… He died in 323 BCE."

The three teenage boys suddenly felt dwarfed, age wise, by this twenty three _hundred_ year old man. It dawned on them all, of course, that many of their shinigami friends were ages old, but knowing the actual time of one of them was still, something uncanny.

"Well, what ever that means, he died in the year of Ciphisodorus." Ulquiorra enlightened them as to how they kept track of their year.

"What's that?" Ichigo piped up over the brim of his glass.

"That was the Archon in Athens at the time of Alexander's death. I can't remember… who ruled just before my time." Ulquiorra winced, straining to recall a name.

"You were alive to witness his campaign?" Ishida interrupted, teetering off of his heels and flat onto his rump, still staring dumbfounded at the Arrancar.

"Yes, I suppose. I wouldn't say I witnessed the prowess of it though, I suppose _you_ get to witness your wars and battles via your technology, but we only heard of his journeys through news and rumors. It took myself about a week after his death to learn of it."

"That makes sense, but wow. That's… amazing, to say the least."

"Why?"

"Well, I can't say I've met a Greek as old as you, I can't say I know any of our time, even."

"Oh, I bet you do." Ulquiorra retorted, smiling softly. The gesture seemed to startle the entire room, the smile, that is. The volume dropped, eyes were watching, and the four surrounding him drew back somewhat. Even Ichigo, who'd seen it before but still seemed put off by it.

"Erm, what did you do among your society?" Sado asked, trying to clear the thickness among them.

Ichigo made a coughing noise, one too obvious, Ulquiorra and the other three looked in his direction curiously and he immediately recoiled that attempt at diverting the question. "Should I not tell them?" Ulquiorra asked plainly, not realizing the difference in culture and time here.

"Well… I mean you don't have to… you know, embarrass yourself." He said quietly, his flushed cheeks bringing his swaying body almost too close to the Arrancar, who placed his hand on the boy's shoulder to steady him. Sado reach across Ulquiorra's lap and plucked the drink that Renji had brought, away and onto a table ledge out of the strawberry's reach.

"Is it not ok in this day and age?" He asked, confused.

Ishida piped up, trying to put himself in, what he understood as Ulquiorra's natural setting at least, through studies and what not. "What was it? Was it bad?" his voice sounded uneasy.

"Not at all. I was a *Hetaera." Ulquiorra straightened some, as though saying that word, once more, after so long, had restored some pride in him.

"A… what?"

Ichigo leaned in further, whispering far too loudly for it to be considered a true whisper, "a prostitute!"

The three teenagers in the circle immediately went red in the face, Renji knew what it meant, he was somewhat less affected, but his eyes did widen some.

"A… really?" Ishida was almost speechless, his mouth opening several times to say something, but closing once more, at a loss.

"As long as it feeds you, I suppose, then there's nothing wrong with it, right?" Sado chimed in, his gaze facing away from Ulquiorra.

"Well, I think their views of… that, were different from ours today." Ishida threw that little insight in to help put it into perspective.

"I was doing more than surviving." Ulquiorra began, trying to figure out how to make it sound less vulgar. "It started out as a means to get food, and at times, shelter, that much is true. But I became educated and eventually eating was of no concern anymore." This was the most any of them had ever really heard from him, and the subject had them all steaming out the tops of their heads.

"You were educated?" Ishida's blush softened, he seemed more interested now and not so shocked.

"Scholars were more than willing to share their knowledge with you in exchange for your body." With that the three underaged men all flared up again, having to look away. "What has the way of today done to make its men so _modest_?" Ulquiorra said with almost obvious disgust and frustration in his voice. "Sex was to be celebrated, is it not so any more?"

"Allllright." A loud voice caused the three teens to all jump, falling over and away from the tall blonde behind Ishida. Urahara had been listening intently, beyond interested in the story, although far too amused by their reactions to it. "I think we may be getting too rambunctious for this neighborhood, I don't tend to party every night, I'm afraid the residence around us will fear the worst and call the cops in." Urahara smiled sweetly at them all, unfurling his fan suddenly to add emphasis to his suggestion.

Ishida and Sado both got the picture, they stood, disposed of their drinks in the tiny kitchen and were on their way out the door. "You're still coming to school tomorrow, right Ichigo?" The pair of glasses asked him with a glare.

The strawberry boy waved at him obnoxiously, growling about something. Sado's hand urged Ishida to go and so they did. The substitute Shinigami jumped when a tall blonde shadow came to loom over him. "I'll set an alarm for you." Urahara smiled cruelly, and then turned from him and Ulquiorra both. "Let's hope your hangover isn't too awful in the morning."

Ichigo groaned, not wanting to think about it, he was having a good time, for the most part.

"A hangover?" Ulquiorra asked. "Those… sick spells after alcohol consumption?"

"And he's just a boy, it'll hit him hard, unless he's already an accomplished lush, at his age."

He and Ulquiorra helped Ichigo up, the boy was fine really, but Urahara wanted to get him off to bed at least, he felt like asking Ulquiorra a few questions.

"I just got back, come on old man!" Ichigo complained all the way down to the shop owner's spare room, Ulquiorra, it appeared, would be joining Ichigo in this room later. Oh well.

Urahara laughed at the boy, patting his head as he shut the door on him before any more complaints could be thrown out.

Author's notes:

In case it's not clear, I made a funny. I said that… well since Grimmy's a kitty… Mayuri's using him for animal testing, OHHO HO HO HO!...

Hetaera was the highest class of prostitutes, men and women alike, in Greece, They were educated and respected among the courts of men as equals, like Geishas.

Author's comments:

I tried to answer as many questions here as I could, I hope it worked out alright. I'm still saving a few things for later though. I'll have to go over what happened with Super Hollow Ichigo (my name for him) later, but I do have that worked out as well. :D I hope you guys enjoyed this.


	4. His Solution

Urahara had just put the young Strawberry-head to bed, despite his protest. He had a cup of tea in hand and was reaching for a small bottle of straight liquor to spruce it up with.

"Well then, how about a drink or two before bed?" The blonde suddenly turned to Ulquiorra, and without waiting for any response he headed off casually, not even turning to see that the hollow had indeed followed after him. Ulquiorra was more aware of good manners than he supposed Urahara knew.

"So that _is_ impressive, a Greek in my company, and not just your every day Greek, but a Classical one at that. Not to make it sound as though you've fallen behind on the happenings of the world you left so long ago, but Greece is still a nation today. It isn't as large as your great General left it, and perhaps not quite the same either; but, the Sumerians are gone, the Babylonians are gone, Akkadians, Mycenaeans, and the Romans are gone, they're Italians now. But Greece is still there, and it's people are still called Greeks." Honestly, the hollow could have done without all of that, although it was interesting to hear that his own people, or something close to it, had survived till this day, and the rest of the great civilizations had fallen.

Ulquiorra followed Urahara back out into the main shop area, the two of them taking a seat out on the porch under the night sky. "I am concerned though, you're still a hollow,"

"I won't be eating any of your comrades." The hollow reassured him.

"Well, I'm concerned about what you will be using as sustenance for yourself." The man threw out casually. The hollow still needed to feed, there was no question about that.

"I can go awhile without souls, but at some point I suppose I'll have to find an alternative." He looked back over him into the shop window when they both heard a loud snore from the boy's room.

"Don't worry, he doesn't normally sleep that loudly." Urahara laughed at Ichigo. "He's normally a peaceful sleeper.

"And, why would you know this?" The hollow raised an eyebrow.

"I'm used to him sleeping over here."

"Oh? And here I thought the boy was a modest virgin." Uqluiorra jumped when Urahara let out a loud laugh, it was startling to say the least.

"No, not like that, Ichigo's still alive, right? He's not used to having to cross worlds to fight demons and what not. It's robbed him of a normal life, so to speak. He comes here to escape that normal life because, I don't think he feels a part of it any longer." The man's laughing had died down, when he finished, his face grew more grave. So the boy was, in a sense, running away.

Ulquiorra straightened in his seat suddenly as a heavy air fell over him, he saw that Urhara had felt it too, the air around them crackling.

"One of your _comrades_ has come to cause trouble." Urahara smiled, looking out at the alley. The beast seemed to be a few blocks over.

"I can't say they were ever my comrades, I never really had comrades." Ulquiorra sighed. He stood from the seat and brought his hand up over his mask. He could still fight, his strength was still his own, still as strong, but it felt unstable now, as though he couldn't hold onto it for too long.

The shop owner peeked his head in through the window of the small hut. "Tessai, Kurosaki-kun needs rest, don't let him come after us." Then he turned to Ulquiorra, reaching through the window to grab his cane. "We'll take care of this; he can rest off the alcohol."

"Hmm, a test?" Ulquiorra inquired, stepping down off of the porch and onto the dirt lot.

"Oh, nooo." Urhara's voice was full of slyness. He smiled at the hollow as he took off towards their target.

The Arrancar was right behind him. What an odd feeling it was, to go out alongside a Shinigami to hunt one of his own. And what an odd feeling it was to be rushing around a corner, coming face to face with a familiar Shinigami who definitely hadn't toyed with the idea of having him live peacefully with them.

Both men came to a stop and Urahara donned the friendliest smile he could. "Ahhh, Rukia! You missed the gathering, it's over now. Ichigo's rather, well, he won't be pleased in the morning."

She glared straight passed Urhara to Ulquiorra. "Taking junior out to teach him the ranks?"

"I… beg your pardon?" Was Ulquiorra's only response.

"Well, if we go by age, then no." Urahara came up beside her and wrapped an arm around her. "Come on Rukia, don't you want to see him in action? For once when it's not against one of us?" Ulquiorra would have rolled his eyes, were it characteristic of him to do so. He knew the man would be testing him, but to announce it outright, he didn't know how to react.

"You don't think it would be asking too much of him?" She retorted. Uqluiorra was _right there,_ and there they were going on as if he was miles away. It was just poor manners to do so. Ulquiorra remained where he stood, waiting patiently for them to finish, staring in the direction of their target hollow.

"Ulquiorra, are you comfortable with this? With being asked to come slay one of your own?" Urahara asked, urging Rukia to listen to the Arrancar.

"I can't say I really had any of my own, I followed orders, but I never considered myself a part of any social or rebellious group, as you no doubt saw it." He told them both, pointing off in the direction of their hollow. "Now I can't be sure, but trust me when I say he's already fed on someone." He reminded them of the task at hand. Rukia looked shocked and Urahara left her to take the lead once more, the Arrancar just behind him and Rukia taking up the rear. Ulquiorra felt that she had done it deliberately, to take up the rear behind him while Urahara was just in front of him.

Up ahead, as they rounded a corner, the two Shinigami gasped at the sheer size of this beast. It had a pointed head, the snout reaching out like a shark's, while it's serpentine body coiled itself around a small gathering of souls.

"Ah, I've… never seen so many before, why were they gathered up like that?" Rukia gasped, unsheathing her Zanpaktou.

"It may have done the gathering." Ulquiorra reminded her, but she didn't pay him any mind. She jumped into action, bringing her blade down across its face. No luck. It had a hard surface, like Ulquiorra.

The beast seemed to freeze, it had noticed Rukia, then Urahara, but when it noticed Uqluiorra standing beside them, not attacking them, and in fact possibly giving them pointers, it roared. It dropped the souls it had in its clutches and surged after him. How dare he!

Urahara stepped in front of the Arrancar and withdrew his own Zanpaktou from his cane. The thin small blade let a wave slice through about an inch of the hollow's mask, it didn't even seem to faze him.

Ulquiorra, with his hand, gently moved Urahara aside to the right, he heard Rukia's voice cry out from off to the left. "Sode no Shirayuki—"

She was preparing herself, but Uqluiorra held a hand out. The beast approached him quickly, its mouth wide open, anger evident in its roar and just a foot or so before it swallowed him up, it froze.

The beast's body trembled before the Arrancar. Rukia and Urahara both froze, straining to understand what had happened, their eyes wide. Rukia's look was of terror to say the least, but Urahara showed the utmost interest in what was happening.

The beast was slowly beginning to glow, its surface turned to a translucent sheen and it even seemed to shrink. Ulquiorra had his hand outstretched, touching the very shark-like tip of the hollow. It groaned and cried before him, only a few of the groans could be deciphered as "traitor... traitor!"

Ulquiorra's mouth was open, the glow of the hollow was slowly being sucked in. As his pale chest increased in size, he would pause to exhale and then increase some more.

"He's, _eating_ it…" Urahara said softly, his eyes wide, bright, like a young paleontologist watching a giant carnivore feed. He was in his own world studying Ulquiorra, how he would react to that kind of situation, this also answered how the hollow would sustain himself while he lived with them. His solution took care of several things at once, or so he assumed.

Rukia, on the other hand, in reaction to what Urahara said, covered her mouth, she winced as the creature continued to groan. Eventually the body had shrunk down to the size of a small snake. Ulquiorra bent himself down, taking up the fragile body and, instead of waiting until it turned to a translucent sheen as well, swallowed the physical solid body, like a rather large noodle of spaghetti. He gave out an exhausted exhale, sounding satisfied. Admittedly, he hadn't eaten before they'd taken him, so it had been more than just the three to four days he'd been in that cave after fighting the boy.

He turned to them both, his look strong, solid, he showed no remorse.

"How could you?" Rukia asked him, her expression almost disgusted.

"Would you rather he be left to torment those souls?" He asked, rubbing his jaw, it had been opened wide for quite some time while he swallowed up the beast.

"But, he was…"

"A hollow?" he asked plainly. "Surely you've heard of hollows eating each other."

"Cannibalism…" Urahara whispered excitedly. "This is…" He couldn't find words for it. "That works? You can eat them and gain sustenance?" He asked the hollow.

"I can, if it's of any comfort to you. I won't be needing the souls of the _innocent_ to help sustain myself, this will work just fine. I imagine it would save you some trouble as well." He looked back at the souls the hollow was about to devour. They knew what he was; they knew to recoil in fear. Urahara and Rukia both looked from them to Ulquiorra, the shop owner holding his hand up before them to calm them, smiling sweetly.

"Now now." He began, as Ulquiorra turned from the scene, heading back to the shop. Rukia joined him. She left Urahara to deal with the stressed souls and silently walked beside him. He could tell by her expression that he hadn't won her over at all, then again, he wasn't really trying. That hollow had indeed given him the strength he needed. He didn't feel quite so empty, without it.

"I guess that does take care of that." She said at long last, though she still seemed utterly disgusted at having _just_ witnessed one being devour one of its own kin. "Is it… something you can stand?" She asked him.

"It's not uncommon, so I suppose it's something I can stand, I feel much better after having consumed him."

That didn't seem to make it any better, she threw her hand over her mouth again, stopped to fall back behind him by a few feet. "It's either that, or I could consume you and your companions." He threatened, his voice dull. She nodded to him, continuing to walk once more until they reached the hut.

Somehow Urahara had beaten them there. He patted Rukia on the shoulder, giving her an overly friendly smile. "I feel it's bedtime now, I suppose you can do as you please, you're welcome to stay here of course, although Ichigo and Ulquiorra here will be sharing the only other spare room I have, and the boy's already passed out cold.

*Right as Urahara had mentioned the boy, a loud high pitched scream, followed by "WHY DO I ALWAYS WAKE UP WITH YOU UNDER MY COVERS?!" had pierced the air. It was Ichigo. The poor boy sounded utterly distressed.

"I was just making sure you were feeling alright!" Tessai complained as a sound punch came from the other room.

"Yeah, I believe it's bedtime." Urahara gave her a look of distress and she nodded to him, heading back to her closet in Ichigo's bedroom, she'd be afraid of the chore that he would push on her in the morning anyway, should she choose to stay at the shop.

Urahara waved goodbye to Rukia; Uqluiorra, on the other hand, simply followed the way inside and down the hall. He stepped aside for a frustrated Tessai to pass, nursing a rather swollen looking cheek.

Upon entering the room, he defended himself from a flying pillow. It seemed the boy was still quite drunk. He paid it no mind and found himself a spare rolled up mat and pillow and sheets to lay out beside Ichigo.

"What is that?" Ulquiorra asked curiously as Ichigo turned on a rather noisy instrument. It didn't seem noisy to the boy of course, but the whir of machinery inside went straight to bothering Ulquiorra.

"It's a computer. I brought it over so I could finish my homework." He lied. Well the boy did have homework, but he fully intended to make a journal of Ulquiorra. Ever since the cave, he hadn't been able to keep the Grecian scenery out of his mind.

"You'll turn it off when you're done right, it's distracting." The hollow winced, bringing a hand to the side of his head, as though it was giving him a headache.

Ichigo nodded, his shoulders slumping a bit. He hadn't even started, but he could get the cave scene down right? He watched Ulquiorra roll out his matt before he turned back to the computer, not meaning to stare. The hollow stripped off the clothing he'd been given, down to nothing, letting his naked pale body glow under the soft light.

"You're sleeping like that?" Ichigo complained, averting his eyes.

Ulquiorra didn't answer him, he stood before the boy, facing him, enjoying the look of shock on his face. _So modest._ He sighed, finally settled down onto the matt, pulling the thin sheets up over himself and watching Ichigo secretly. The boy watched the sheets cling to Ulquiorra's body, they were thin after all. How amusing. "Goodnight then." Ulquiorra told him.

"You use that phrase?" Ichigo asked him suddenly, surprised.

"Yes, now stop being so noisy."

Great, his roommate for tonight was a bossy one, this would be fun. Ichigo rolled his eyes. He set himself to begin, starting was always the hard part, but eventually, he'd forced a good beginning out and now it was just pouring out of him. It wouldn't take long.

After a good hour or so, the boy had the cave scene down as best as he could hope for. He wasn't a straight-A student, but he still knew how to recount an event in a somewhat literate way. It had become a sort of diary entry, but for now it would do. He planned on going back over and changing a few things later.

The strawberry-haired boy stopped typing. He rubbed his eyes, and then the insides of his thighs, not daring to venture any closer. Recounting the whole ordeal was enough to drive him nuts. With a slumbering hollow beside him, he didn't want to be caught like _that_. Ichigo sighed and turned off the monitor, moving to lie down.

"You'll turn the other half off, right? It makes odd noises at night." Ulquiorra asked him. He was awake, and he didn't sound groggy, so he'd been awake for a while. Ichigo hesitated, swallowing hard before he turned the screen back on, saving what he had typed up thus far before shutting down his computer, its screen going blank.

"… Night." He said, before laying himself down.

"What is it you're studying?" he heard, and turned to see Ulquiorra facing him. They weren't a couple of teenage girls gossiping about cute boys, but still he felt rather silly like this.

"Stuff…." He couldn't think of a subject quick enough. "Ge…ography…" he said hesitantly.

"No," Ulquiorra sat up, scooting closer to Ichigo. "Unless, in this day and age, the likes of teenage boys has changed, geography wouldn't do this to you." He ended that with a reach for Ichigo's hip, firmly sliding his hand over the boy's tented pajama bottoms.

Ichigo recoiled and tried to force Ulquiorra's hand away, but he kept it there, buried in the boy's groin. "S-stop it!" He whispered loudly, wincing at the suddenly jolt of lightheadedness. "I, I'm serious."

"No you're not." Ulquiorra said simply, softly, swinging his legs around so that he sat Indian-style instead, taking his place beside Ichigo and beginning to rub the boy harder.

It was working, those teenage minds were a mess with hormones and he couldn't help but throw a hand over his mouth, his eyes heavily lidded and watching Ulquiorra's hand massage him through his pants.

"What were you typing?" Ulquiorra asked again, leaning down to blow over Ichigo's ear.

The boy was so helpless, his eyes rolled back momentarily as he swallowed a moan, refusing to answer and clapping his hands over his mouth. He glanced over as he heard Ulquiorra moving and saw that he did indeed have his own erection, only it wasn't restrained by cloth.

The hollow crawled atop Ichigo, straddling, but keeping himself from sitting down in Ichigo's lap. His massage stopped and he took Ichigo's hands captive, forcing him to verbalize how it all felt.

The boy was watching where their groins met, he was waiting for Ulquiorra to grind his cock into Ichigo's concealed one, but he didn't, he moved up only enough for the tip to brush over Ichigo's, then pulled back as the boy answered with a shallow buck.

Ulquiorra leaned down over him, making sure to keep Ichigo's hands still while he continued to tease with only light touching of their groins. "What were you typing?" He whispered against Ichigo's ear, his voice was a harsh warm breeze against the boy's flesh and he arched up sharply against Ulquiorra, trying to force his erection into the other's, but he failed.

Ulquiorra calculated this and pulled back at just the right moment. How frustrating. The boy bent his knees suddenly, bringing them up behind Ulquiorra and knocking him deeper into his lap, but the hollow's thin slender legs had strong muscles in them, which lifted him up just out of reach. "Please…" Ichigo begged softly, needing some sort of contact.

"Tell me, I promise I'll reward you." Ulquiorra whispered even more softly, biting at the soft lobe of Ichigo's ear.

Ichigo bit his lip. He didn't know how long this would go on for, and he figured that if Ulquiorra wanted his recounting of the cave deleted, he wouldn't know about backup files and wouldn't know whether Ichigo had really deleted it or not. "The cave…" he said softly, shutting his eyes, it took more effort than he though.

"The cave?" Ulquiorra asked, letting their cock brush softly once more.

"When we were in the cave, your history that you showed me… but also…" with that, Ulquiorra gave Ichigo a good hard grind, covering the boy's mouth with his hand when, just as he'd expected, the boy gave out a loud groan.

"You were retelling of my intention to help you _feel_?" He asked, sounding interested.

"Uh-huh." Ichigo groaned out against Ulquiorra's palm, the euphoria of that hard rub fading quickly, being replaced with the need for more contact. He found a bit of flesh with his tongue and awkwardly bit at it to get the hollow to remove his hand, earning a surprised look.

"What did you mean… by reward?" He asked shyly, his brows furrowed, a deep_er_ blush rising up from his neck.

"I had an idea of what it should be, but I don't know if you'll recoil from the offer or not." Uluiqorra stated softly against his neck, tracing his tongue down towards Ichigo's neck. Ulquiorra traced his fingers over Ichigo's lips momentarily before getting the teen to suck on them, lathering them nicely with his tongue. This, the hollow withdrew and traced back over his right hip, around his cheek and found his tightly puckered hole. Ichigo wouldn't know until he opened his eyes.

Ulquiorra was nestled down in the boy's groin finally, and Ichigo made light work of bucking up against him, although Ulquiorra quickly stopped the motion. He sat back, one firm hand slowing Ichigo's motions while the other slipped a single finger inside himself, followed by another.

Once Ichigo understood what it was Ulquiorra was doing, he sat up on his elbows. "Wait, I don't know if I can… if, you know." He blushed.

The hollow punished Ichigo with a well aimed at twist his nipple, and through a cotton shirt no less. It wasn't hard though, the boy's nipples stood out form the shirt. Ichigo fell back from his perch, gasping and bit back a moan.

"When I said _promise_ it was more of a demand." Ulquiorra said, his voice shallow and he let his head fall back a bit, seeking out his own prostate.

That same hand removed itself from Ichigo's nipple, and as Ulquiorra inhaled sharply, it caught a fair amount of pre-cum from his cock, holding it safely in his hand. He was good at this, for those times when he hadn't any oil or lubricant around. Ichigo on the other hand, bit his lip when he saw the hollow jerking softly from his own actions.

Ulquiorra pulled three fingers out, figuring he was stretched enough; he still wanted to prove to the boy that he was more a skilled prostitute, and not a loose whore. He pushed Ichigo's knees back a bit, enough to slide down and then between the boy's legs. Ichigo protested only a little when his pajama bottoms were pulled down over his cock, but when the warm hand with hot pre-cum coated it generously, he gave up his complaints and dropped his head back to the tatami mat.

Ulquiora's breath startled the boy, but not as much as his lips, or his tongue, or the entire hot cavern of his mouth. Ichigo was average, maybe a little more than average size, but at that moment, he swore he felt himself grow even more. Ulquiorra had his base in hand, and his tongue swirled over Ichigo's tip, just as his own head swirled and he had to hold onto the edges of the mat tightly. The tongue was made hard for a moment, prodding the pre soaked slit stubbornly, making the boy gasp sharply and then it softened over the spongy head.

"I might be noisy." He warned.

"You're not coming yet." Ulquiorra warned him, sliding all of his mouth down over the boy's length. Ichigo bit his lip as he felt his tip push _passed_ the back of Ulquiorra's throat and then slide slowly back out. He didn't realize that it wasn't a blow job, Ulquiorra was preparing him, he was making sure the boy was lubed enough, so he wouldn't be hurt.

Ichigo was a virgin after all, all he knew with the palm of his hand or a warm pillow. You couldn't blame him for being normal, he didn't live in a time when sexuality was expressed openly and freely among the citizens like Ulquiorra's world. He was taught that masturbation was a disgraceful thing, of course, Uqluoirra could tell him otherwise.

The hollow removed himself from between Ichigo's legs and, making sure to position himself carefully, moved up to straddle the boy once more. He reached one hand back, taking Ichigo's cock in hand and rubbing it against his anus. The boy hadn't really known what Ulquiorra was planning, he was afraid that Ulquiorra had planned on taking him, although it didn't seem that way now, he was thankful when he felt the hollow lowering on top of him, adding pressure and hissing a little. It sounded painful, but he didn't think it was to Ulquiorra.

The hollow's mouth fell open when he felt the head suddenly pop in, he waited, watching Ichigo and gave the boy a good squeeze of his muscle before continuing. Ichigo was panting softly, his head pulled forward to watch. Ulquiorra's back was straight, he sat perfectly upright as he took in all of Ichigo, it wasn't until he was all the way in that Ulquiorra leaned forward a little. He looked down at Ichigo, breaths shallow. "Generous reward?" He asked softly, leaning down further to nip at Ichigo's ear. The boy nodded..

The two of them let small moans out as Ulquiorra began to rock against the one beneath him. What Ichigo found erotic, was that it wasn't a simple rock, it was a slow undulation of his hips. His back was rounded at the start of the motion, and he would drag his groin, from the middle of his back down over Ichigo, feeling the boy's hard cock slip from inside of him a bit, just a little bit, and then his back would straighten, and transition to a soft dipping curve, dragging his groin back over the boy until his spine curved again, pushing himself down over Ichigo's cock once more. It was a simple appealing motion that Ichigo couldn't help but moan at, the muscles always convulsing lightly, teasing him inside while the hollow continued.

Ulquiorra's hand slid up under Ichigo's shirt as they grinded into each other more, his fingers finding a hard nipple and brushing over it lightly, eventually moving onto rubbing it and then pinching it. "If you get to be too noisy, bite me to muffle yourself." He offered.

Although it was more of a warning, but to Ichigo it was to help him, and he leaned his head up a bit, biting at Ulquiorra's collar bone and gathering a bit of skin into his mouth. He simply held it there at first, but as the hollow began to speed up, Ichigo's head spun about and he didn't realize how hard he was biting until he tasted a sharp nickel flavor in his mouth. He gasped softly, releasing the hollow and apologizing.

"Don't stop, it doesn't hurt me like it would you." Ulquiorra reassured him, and Ichigo reluctantly, at first, moved on to another fresh bit of skin, this time in the crook of Uqluiorra's neck. Ichigo's breaths came much shorter, and much more quickly, as did Ulquiorra's, but they were still just as quiet.

The boy wrapped his arms up around Ulquiorra's, gripping at them tightly as he felt a rising flame beginning to swirl around inside him. Ulquiorra felt this, and he wasn't even close, but it was a promise to the boy for telling him his secret. He was, after all, far more used to these activities than a fifteen year old boy. He picked up his pace, aiming for his own prostate, knowing that he was still allowed to have fun himself. He felt his head begin to spin just as Ichigo's bite tightened on his neck, drawing yet more blood.

Ichigo's hips thrust up against him and the hollow couldn't help but gasp at the pleasing sharp pains inside of himself before Ichigo stopped. He looked down at the boy, watching the look of ecstasy and shock on his face beneath lazily splayed fingers. Ichigo's chest rose and fell sharply and he still had tiny tremors of convulsions running up and down his body.

Ulquiorra stopped. He watched Ichigo while one of his hands had taken to stroking himself, a strong hard grip. He gave a small twist of his hips, hitting his prostate and eliciting a sudden gasp from Ichigo, who looked up just in time to see Ulquiorra spill on his belly. He would have protested at that as well, but in all honesty, he had to bite his lip to keep from moaning at the sight.

Ulquiorra removed himself, shuddering as the boy slipped out of him. He looked satisfied, even if it wasn't the best, each one is good in its own unique way. He got to dominate, so to speak, the boy who had been determined to beat him. Even if he was still technically bottom, Ulquiorra had come out on top this time.

He simply rolled over onto his mat, whiping his hands in the sheets, and then gathering them to rub between his legs, partly to clean up a little of the mess, but also simply to rub out any remaining tremors of orgasm left. Ichigo was doing the same, just, without the sheets, he had his hand wrapped firmly around himself and squeezed a few times, and then just left it there.

The hollow had to suppress a smile as the boy looked confused at himself. He wanted to shower, and it sounded like a good idea to Ulquiorra, but Ichigo began to go on about how the smell and possible loud noises and then the sudden use of a shower would raise suspicion from the shop keeper. He didn't want to risk that obviously. "Just wait until morning." He told him. The boy had gotten very little sleep, he just had great first sex, and was probably still going to have a hangover in the morning.

"I know, I just don't see how you can sleep in this.." He laughed softly.

Ulquiorra closed his eyes and cleared his throat, encouraging the boy to be quiet now as he tried to sleep.

Ichigo understood and fell silent, but was mostly unable to fall asleep for at least another hour. He rolled over onto his side and thought for a moment of what had just happened, if he would put this in the journal, or if he would even want anyone to know. But before he could come up with a good answer, he was asleep, and so remained until morning.

* * *

(( I wrote a lot of ooc, and you don't have to read it. ))

I promised you a lemon, didn't I? XD

And I promise there will be plenty more to come . …

**Author's notes**:

I made another funny. If you haven't seen "The Way the Bleach Boys Mate" by BloodAmulet on Youtube you should see it, it's hilarious. This is in reference to an Ichigo x Tessai moment in the AMV.

Please Review! I could always use suggestions. I won't know how to make it "good for you" if you don't tell me how good or horrible it was. Creative criticism though, please. XD

If you have questions, or want to see more or less of something, or if you're a history nerd like I am and want me to try and include something, tell me!

**Author's Comments**:

So if you noticed that a piece in there sounded remarkably like a snippet from the first chapter, you are correct! You deserve a prize. ^w^ I tried to connected the two, since I'll be jumping around a bit throughout the chapter, especially with Ulquiorra's life visions. I wanted to add a little consecutiveness to it. It'll fall into a more linear pattern, or the present will, at least, Ulquiorra's life will continue to jump around a bit.


	5. The Titan

I wanted to have this ready to go for Hanukkah this year, but I'm afraid I only have the one chapter. This week was deadweek, and then next week I have three finals, and then surgery on the 16th. So I didn't have time to come up with eight new chapters. I'm sorry guys! Hopefully though, this'll be enough of a Hanukkah gift for you all, and I promise that, what with being bed ridden after surgery, I should have PLENTY of time to move this along, I hope.

Happy Holidays you guys!

Chapter V

The fair amount of alcohol Ichigo had the night before, of course, went straight to his head. It took him a moment to register that Urahara was calling his name loudly; but once he awoke, he pulled the pillow over his face, trying to drown out the obnoxious man's voice.

"Come on Kurosaki-kuuuun." He felt his sheets being tugged and hugged them to his body desperately, yelping as a sound spank from the man's cane struck his rump.

"Gah! What the heck is wrong with you?!" He growled and the man only smiled at him, pulling the stunned teen up from his mat and standing him in front of the door.

"You'll be late for class now. There's a change of clothes in the bathroom."

"Damnit, old man! I'm not going!"

"Oh yes you are!" He smiled widely at Ichigo, giving him a good shove.

"Enough." They both turned to see a grumpy hollow sitting up from his mat. He grabbed his blanket and pillow and nakedly walked from the room to the grass outside the shop. Both of the men stared almost horrified after him. It was obvious that Ulquiorra was _not _a morning person.

"You woke him up, Kurosaki-kun." Urahara noted against Ichigo's ear.

The boy swung his arm at the shop keeper, throwing the bed sheet that was still attached to him in the man's face. "If you hadn't tried to wake me up, it wouldn't have happened at all!" He growled at the man who only returned a friendly smile.

Ichigo had completely forgotten about their little activity the night before. He removed his PJ's in the bathroom and was about to step into the shower when he remembered, blushing, and covering his face as he realized what he'd done.

Images of the Hollow enthralled in utter euphoria flooded his mind and Ichigo sank against the tile wall outside the shower, trying to force those images from his mind.

This time, he had felt everything. The boy could remember every throbbing need and build up of pleasure. "God…" he whispered to himself. He couldn't really blame Ulquiorra, but he couldn't help but feel furious at him for having done this to him.

Ichigo shook his head as he stood up. He turned the shower to cold and climbed in, gasping suddenly at the shock of ice against his skin. It was a cold morning already, and when the shopkeeper had woken him up, he held tightly to his sheets and their warmness. Now he welcomed the cold.

The teen looked down, it was morning after all; and with the memories coming back to him, he was more than half hard. However, letting the cold water cascade down from the top of his head, shivering as it slid down his neck and over his chest and stomach, the throbbing slowly stopped and his erection began to bend in the middle, drooping slowly until he had diminished completely. After about a minute Ichigo cursed loudly to himself, turning the water to a warmer setting, not too much though, he was afraid of it coming back.

The boy finished rather quickly, no one enjoys a cold shower when it's actually cold. He avoided the hollow as he dressed quickly, rushing out of the shop with his book bag that Ishida had brought over.

School seemed like a forgotten memory to him, the happy yet anxious faces rushing around, chattering. They all crowded around him when he arrived, asking him if the south was fun, and how awful it was to have a urethra dwelling fish retrieved from inside him.

_Dammit Ishida._ He thought, just as the Quincy walked up beside him. Ichigo had half a mind to slug the four eyed bastard, but he never got the chance when Keigo sent him into a pillar outside the main building. A rare feat.

'Sounds like you had fun without me, Ichi." Keigo pouted at him, towering over his slumped form.

Ichigo shot him a glare and he only grinned back, rushing off as the bell sounded.

This all seemed far too strange to him. Even though he'd spent fifteen years of his life in this scenario, coming back after their struggle with Hueco Mundo made the switch back into a normal lifestyle hard for him.

Ishida hung behind after the rest had gone to help Ichigo up, he gave an apologetic grin as they headed for the doors and Ichigo remembered what had happened. He remembered finding Ishida run through with his Zanpaktou.

"Is it good to be back?" he heard, turning to see the Quincy looking rather concern.

"Yeah…" he said apathetically.

"You have to get back to your normal life, Kurosaki. You're still apart of this world."

"I know," Ichigo interrupted him. The boy slowed a little, Ishida turning to look back at him, he didn't seem himself at all, and the Quincy knew why.

"I promise you're still human." He sighed, pushing his glasses up. "You're not… a normal Shinigami. It was something that was forced, right? So I can imagine that it didn't happen as naturally as it did with Renji or Rukia."

"But, is that why…" Ichigo rubbed his hand over the center of his chest, remembering the beast he'd become.

"Maybe, I think it's not something that can be overlooked." He smiled at Ichigo, backtracking a bit until he stood beside him, giving his shoulder a gentle nudge in the direction of class. "You want to be human more than anything, right? Why don't you join the rest of us in our normal--"

"I'm sorry, Ishida." Ichigo piped up, not looking at the Quincy. "For what I did."

"You didn't know." He reasoned.

"But I almost killed…"

"No, Orihime was there, I was fine."

"But if she hadn't been there."

"Kurosaki-kun." They both heard, and Ichigo turned wide eyed to face Orihime behind him. "Ishida-kun forgives you; you should be happy again." She smiled warmly at him.

Ichigo saw that smile and immediately thought of Ulquiorra's mom again, He froze for a moment before they both walked him towards the building and down the hall.

"Really now, Ichigo, I don't hold it against you at all, so stop bothering yourself with it." Ishida told the strawberry-haired boy.

He and Orihime stopped walking, letting Ichigo wander on ahead absentmindedly into a fuming Tatsuki. The girl grabbed the nape of his neck and led him quickly into a wall, then gave him a sound noogie.

"What the hell, Ichigo?! If you keep missing so much of this life you'll be lost and we won't let you come back!" She joked angrily. This rang deeper to the boy than she knew though.

The boy looked at her almost hurt and she lost her fire for a bit. It was a quick rebound, Ichigo picked up on the game instantly, like second nature, an old piece of him came back and he kicked her feet out from under her. "HA! You thought my feelings were so sensitive!" He triumphed over her. "You dropped your guard, Tatsuki!"

She growled at him and chased him into the classroom, Orihime and Ishida following behind them. Ichigo had run smack into Sado and the Mexican held him a good foot and a half off of the ground to get him to stop running and calm down. He too had realized how different the boy seemed, he was trying to see if he was ok. But Tatsuki took the moment of concern as a chance to attack the boy's kidneys a few times, aiming several short punches that brought several cries from him.

Orihime laughed at the scene, Ishida pretended not to notice, and it seemed as though life had welcomed the Strawberry back.

The class began after their commotion died down; it was the part of life Ichigo could do without, the subject was math, algebra leading into quadratic formulas. Not at all his favorite. Ichigo's notes were beginning to look more and more like an old manuscript telling of Vikings invading the land of variables and slaughtering their women and children, if they had women and children. The women would be the X's perhaps, and the Y's were the helpless men trying to fend off his stick figure Normans.

He threw a few Romans in there and then eventually, he'd thrown in a Greek or two. The stick figure Greeks seemed to stir his mind once more, thinking of Ulquiorra's past.

It took only a second for his train of thought to turn to the night before. Ichigo clapped his hand over his mouth discretely, his eyes averting to the window beside him. _Shit…_ he thought, realizing that his friend had returned from this morning. The boy had yet to suffer the social embarrassment of a hard-on in class, and he wanted to keep it that way.

"Kurosaki-kun." He heard Orihime's soft voice beside him and nearly shriveled away into his chair. She was the last person on earth he wanted to witness his teenage hormonal malfunction.

The teen leaned over to her hesitantly, feigning illness to her and excused himself, rushing out through the back of the room.

The boy made a B-line for the boy's bathroom, locking the door behind him. He was in there only a moment before he heard someone try the handle.

"Hey, come on, I gotta take a piss!" It was just some other student.

Ichigo rushed back and unlocked the door, apologizing to the boy and pushing passed him. He would take refuge on the roof, his one place of seclusion, it seemed.

The teen rushed up the flights, bursting through the door to the roof to find nobody there. No intrusions no eavesdropping bodies anywhere. He sighed, rubbing his face in the palms of his hands as he slumped to the ground.

"Damnit, bastard." He cursed to himself letting his legs open a bit to fall into a more comfortable position.

The boy shoved his hand in his crotch, at first, only to hide the burning organ in his groin. Finally, though, he simply settled with just rubbing himself gently, letting out a ragged breath as he felt his face heat up with embarrassment.

After a while, the rubbing through his slacks wasn't enough. He slouched down more so that he could undo his belt and his fly, freeing himself. The boy sighed as he took himself in hand, squeezing and then rubbing the flats of two fingers just up under his frenum. Ichigo gasped softly, biting his lip as his legs tensed, lifting up into his own touch. He couldn't help but imagine that it was Ulquiorra, although he'd probably be better at it.

Ichigo nearly _screamed_ out when he heard a shocked laugh. The teen slipped from his awkward position and pulled his pants up over his erection, trying his best to hide the evidence.

"Ohhh Ichigo, you're fiiiine." He heard and sat up quickly to look around.

"Who the hell's there?" He growled.

Yumichika Ayasegawa landed right in front of the boy, who startled and landed back against the wall. The primpy Shinigami tossed his hair and straightened the feathers decorating his right eye before he resumed his musings. He just couldn't suppress his huge grin as he watched the flustered teen.

"Having a rough day?" He asked, smirking at the boy's angry look.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Visiting, it's boring back home, there's not much to do." He wined. Yumichika stopped Ichigo's attempts at doing up his pants. "You know you'll just hurt yourself if you do that."

"Don't tough me!" Ichigo gasped, trying to stop Yumichika but it was too late. The Madona had his hands in Ichigo's half done up pants, paying close attention to his length.

"How… can you just…" Ichigo stared dumb founded at the Shinigami, his breath hitching only a little.

"I like doing this for people." He smiled. "Actually, Renji and I were talking since he got back last night." The third seat began to say, his smile widening. "So Ulquiorra." He began. It seemed, to Ichigo, as though he were having trouble finding a place to start.

"What about him?" He asked, his raspy voice.

"I knew him briefly, that's all."

"You knew him… wait, when? As a Greek?"

Yumichika smiled, nodded slowly as he made to pull the boy's pants down more.

"Were you… like him?"

"Oh just say it, Ichigo. A prostitute." He laughed as the boy blushed. "It really isn't that big of a deal." He sat himself down further between Ichigo's legs. "Admittedly, I wasn't as successful as he was, but I also wasn't as reckless."

"Ulquiorra was reckless?" He asked curiously, but was cut short as Yumichika's hand was replaced by his mouth, such a skilled mouth too. Ichigo brought his hand up to entangle in the other man's hair but was stopped. Yumichika wouldn't let him touch his hair, of course. He moaned suddenly, trying to stifle any sounds while he felt the back of Yumichika's throat hit his head repeatedly.

Ichigo's eyes shook lightly as he felt the other's tongue swirl around his head, but he was still buried deep in his throat. It was as though the man's tongue wasn't attached to the bottom of his mouth. The boy gasped suddenly and tried to sit up more. "Hey…" he began, panting, his hands balling up on the ground for support. "Yumichika… stop.." He warned, moaning loudly as he drew closer.

The man didn't stop. Ichigo didn't know if he should just be thankful and just let him continue, or if he should be offended that this kept happening to him, as though he was weak in a sense of sexual need.

Yumichika, at that point, had created such a strong vacuum around Ichigo that the boy felt as though he would suck his orgasm out before it had even hit. Although, it hit right on target. Ichigo bit his bottom lip hard enough to make it bleed, but he couldn't seem to muffle any moans. He thrusted up at Yumichika, who didn't seem to mind that, and then his thrusts died down, his hips only rolling at this point. He slumped against the wall as his orgasm died out.

Yumichika sat up from Ichigo, wiping a little cum from his lips as he settled to sit before the boy. "That'll tie you over until you get home, right?" He joked softly. Ichigo just glared.

"Keep talking about Ulquiorra." He ordered breathlessly.

"Oh, he was just in a lot of trouble."

"But what do you mean trouble?" Ichigo interrupted.

"Oh, conspiracy."

"C-conspiracy?" That sounded like a big thing back then. Ichgio had the not-so-off-impression that people were after power back then. That rulers were offed by their heirs left and right.

"Yeah, it was a mess. I mean, the time was kind of set up for it, though."

"So, are there any other really old—" He stopped, Ichigo didn't know if _really old_ would offend Yumichika.

"Not that I know of, we don't really talk about it in Sereitei. Just the three of us."

He nodded, taking his place beside Ichigo who was a little slow on the uptake. "Wait, three? There's you, Ulquiorra, who else?" He asked, looking excited.

"Kenpachi." Yumichika said casually, resting his hands behind his head.

"You're….. really?" Ichigo looked comically astounded. "He's…. He wasn't a prostitute, was he?"

At that remark Yumichika broke out laughing. Ichigo looked terrified.

In fact, the boy was. He'd been _harassed, _by two Greek Prostitutes now. If Kenpachi was anything like them, he didn't want the big guy coming after his anal cherry, and that's the role he assumed of Zaraki, since he couldn't see the brute in any other position.

Yumichika wiped a tear from his eye as he calmed down, "No, no no, no. He was a Gladiator."

"Wait… I thought Gladiators were Roman." Ichigo interrupted, confused.

"Well every culture had some form of competition to the death for their criminals and slaves and what not, Rome just made a sport of it. He is Roman though, Zaraki." Ichigo seemed to lean in closer as Yumichika went on. "And you know how they say that time calms the mind, makes it wiser, it's true. He used to be so wild."

"Used to be?" Ichigo sounded a little doubtful at that, the man seemed crazier than anyone Ichigo had even met.

"Trust me, he was an animal back then."

"Can you show me?" Ichigo asked, sounded eager.

"Show you? Uh." Yumichika seemed a little confused at the request. "How would I show you?"

Ichigo looked confused now as well. "Like, psychically." He added, feeling silly for having done so.

Yumichika only laughed. "How would I do that?" He shook his head with an amused grin on his voice.

"You… can't show me? Ulquiorra showed me some of his past."

"He did? I can't do that, I don't know of anyone who can." Yumichika addmited with a dumb look on his face.

"Do you think it's a hollow thing?" Ichigo asked, slumping back down against the wall.

"Maybe. How did he do it?" He asked curiously.

"He touched my hand with his, but then, when he's asleep, I can see into his past through his hole.

Without missing a beat, Yumichika burst out laughing. "He showed you the light, did he?" He joked.

It took Ichigo a moment to get the childish joke but he frowned immediately. "No, God, the hole in his neck, the hollows hole!" He growled.

Yumichika waved his hand apologetically, and he turned a serious look to Ichigo, which only lasted a moment. _Hole_ had reminded Ichigo, yet again, and his one track hormonal teenage mind of the night before. "Did something happen?" Yumichika asked.

"I'm not telling you." Ichigo sounded offended and he quickly moved to button his pants again.

"Hold on." Yumichika said, fumbling with Ichigo's groin.

"Wait, not again!" Ichigop protested. He winced though, as the Shinigami helped him with something else. He wasn't going to get the boy off again it seemed, he only layed Ichigo's erection flat against his stomach, and then buttoned his fly up over it, fastening the boy's belt.

"Just make sure your shirt covers it, in case it sticks up over the hem of your pants."

"This is so uncomfortable." The boy wined, looking down at his trapped erection, staring up at him like a sad unwanted puppy, with one eye. Actually, it reminded him of Bawa-bawa, which was an unwanted image, but he was thankful for it nonetheless, as it caused his cock to deflate a little.

"I know, Ikakku does it though, it seems to work for him when we can't get away from meetings." Yumichika sighed, fixing his hair a little.

Ichigo blushed at the mention of the bald Shinigami. "So you two… are you—"

"No, we're just friends. You see, you're totally different from me. Sex didn't have to be between two lovers back then, it wasn't rare that it might be, but it also wasn't rare that it wasn't." He smiled at Ichigo. He'd heard that before, only in different words.

"I know, Ulquiorra tells me all the time, I'm too modest."

This aroused the Madona's suspicions and he leaned in closer. "So you two are getting pretty friendly, huh?"

"No" Ichigo snapped.

"What'd he do?"

"Nothing, I have to get back to class." The teenager growled, standing up quickly to avoid a fondling gesture.

"By the way, I didn't know Kenpachi back then, I'd just heard of his bloodlust. If you want, I can have him come here and tell you about his life." He smiled warmly at the boy who only blushed and rushed back to class.

The rest of the day was just as slow, if not slower, than the morning. Ichigo couldn't focus. And even though, at the times when he was hard, his erection was hidden, it didn't mean he didn't know it was there. He was lucky that Yumichika had given him head and swallowed, or he was certain that everyone would know by the smell alone.

It was bad enough that he had to be there at all, but worse that he couldn't just up and leave.

When he was free to leave after school, he did so without a word to the others, he broke into a dead sprint for the shop, rather than home, and did everything possible to avoid Rukia as she waited for them outside of school.

Ichigo wasn't terribly thrilled when he saw Orihime talking to Ulquiorra outside the shop.

She smiled at the strawberry head and only turned a curious look to Ulquiorra as Ichigo headed inside without a word to her. He dumped his bag into the room that he and Ulquiorra shared and shut himself in the bathroom.

The boy had never imagined that losing his virginity would create such a distraction in his every day life. Of course, if it had happened in any other fashion; like, perhaps with a girl, in his room, while his dad and sisters were out of town, and with everything planned out at least, it may have been less confusing to him.

"Kuro… Ichigo?" He heard Orihime from the hallway, she sounded concerned.

Ichigo cleared his throat a bit and tried to sound friendly. "Sorry, Inoue, I really had to go." He added a laugh after that.

He heard her give an embarrassed sound and then laughed herself. "Oh, I thought you were upset. Alright." She said, her footsteps starting down the hall, away from Ichigo. He heard her stop though, and then another voice.

"It's probably _something_ I did." Ulquiorra.

_Don't you dare!_ He thought and the door burst open.

He saw the stoic pale face just beyond Orihime and gave him a threatening look.

"Inoue, I'm sorry but could you wait out here for a bit, I need to talk to Ulquiorra." He said, a serious look on his face.

Orihime nodded to them both, she looked worried at the intense gaze Ichigo gave the hollow.

Ulquiorra let out a sigh and placed his hands on Orihime's shoulders, moving her aside gently in the narrow hallway while he left into the shared bedroom. Ichigo followed after him and tried his best to give Orihime a smile before shutting the screen.

"What did you do to me?" He rounded on the hollow, only receiving a comical look.

"I _rode_ you last night." Ulquiorra said, with a sound emphasis on "rode."

Ichigo only blushed more furiously and shook his head. "No, I mean… why am I like this? You did something to me and it's making me fall apart!" He growled, waving his hands around in a frustrated manner.

"You weren't a virgin, so I don't know why you're acting the way you are." Ulquiorra said plainly. "You already had a shot at me when we fought."

"I know." Ichigo snapped, then he took a deep sigh, slouching down against the wall. "I just don't... well that's just it, I don't know. I don't know why I can't think of anything else, or why this is happening now and why it didn't happen earlier in Hueco Mundo." He shook his head.

"You felt it for the first time, did you not? Perhaps that's what it is." Ulquiorra offered his own reasoning for the teen.

"You had no right, by the way. My first time would've been with a girl." Ichigo fumed.

"Really?"

"What does that mean?" he snapped, that wasn't what he wanted, the damned hollow joking about his preference.

"It means you're thinking too much about it. Have you ever masturbated before?" Ulquiorra inquired, taking a seat beside Ichigo.

"… Yeah.." the boy sounded embarrassed, but he gave in, deciding to play the hollow's game.

"Then it wasn't really your first time." Ulquiorra sounded sure of that.

Ichigo couldn't help but laugh a little. "That makes no sense," He told the hollow.

"Do you love me?" Ulquiorra asked plainly.

Ichigo had never hit his head so hard before, as it jerked back against the wall out of utter shock. "N-no!" He exclaimed, averting his gaze from the amused hollow while he rubbed the back of his own head gingerly.

"Then it didn't count." He told Ichigo.

"I… didn't think that you believe in love." Ichigo admitted, as awful as that may have sounded.

"I believe that love is for some, and not others. I don't believe it's for me." He sounded quite sure of that.

"You've never… tried to fall in love?" Ichigo couldn't help but ask, although he felt the heat rise in his face, what an awkward conversation to be having with an old enemy.

"No, but I also don't feel as though I'm missing out, I find enough passion in other things. _Interesting_ things." He began fixing the fold of the hem of his black kimono. Ulquiorra had taken a liking to the black garment; it was simple, loose, and very comfortable.

Ichigo didn't know Ulquiorra enough to know what he meant. Did that mean liked being a whore in ancient times; or liked being used, or competition?

"Say, did you know Yumichika?" Ichigo asked curiously. The hollow turned to look at him with a curious gaze.

"Um, he's a Shinigami friend. He's on Zaraki Kenpachi's squad."

"Oh, the effeminate one." Ichigo suppressed a smile at Ulquiorra's response.

"Did you know him?"

"I did, briefly, we crossed paths once or twice, but his Captain..." The hollow began but Ichigo's face lit up.

"Oh yeah! I forgot! Yumichika told me he was a Gladiator!" He looked utterly amused. "Which doesn't surprise me, it's perfect." He laughed.

"He was quite the gladiator." Ulquiorra nodded.

"So you did know him.?"

"I'd say more so than his 3rd seat."

"Can you… show me?" Ichigo asked, and sounded a little shy at his request.

He saw Ulquiorra suppress a small smile, turning slightly to face Ichigo more and taking the boy's hand. "I can."

The boy fell into an all too familiar setting again. It was that setting before technology. That time before the skies were polluted with light from towns, instead, smoke rose from the torches lining the roads, it wasn't too much though.

The narrow road between two rows of low buildings and huts curved off the right side. Ichigo seemed to follow that path on until he came to a small doorway. He turned to face it, and just inside and to the left. He found Ulquiorra, pushed up against a wall, both legs locked tightly behind a taller man's hips that was, as far as Ichigo could tell, naked from the waste down and thrusting quickly into the familiar Greek.

_That's. Not. Him. Why are you showing me this?_ He thought loudly.

_Enough, watch.._ He heard Ulquiorra's voice and was forced to look forward, watching as the two bodies followed a sloppy rhythm. Ichigo heard the slight moistness between their bodies, he had to try and shut the noise out, the noise of Ulquiorra breathing harshly against the man's neck, shuddering. The man himself gripped tightly to Ulquiorra's hair, biting at the other's neck until he gave a strangled gasp, trying hard not to moan out loud. Shuddering, the man thrusted in deeply for a moment, pausing, and then held Ulquiorra's slender waste while his legs lowered down to keep the hollow standing.

The man backed away from Ulquiorra, taking a seat by a small dinner table and wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Ulquiorra remained against the wall, grinning, his face flushed, his forehead dotted with sweat, but his eyes cool and calculating as the man before him caught his breath.

"So does it sound interesting to you?" The man asked, panting softly still.

Ulquiorra closed his eyes, smiling. "Interesting." He nodded, bringing a hand up to tame the wavy, raven locks once more. "Yes, I like it, I don't know when I'll be able to pull this off…" Ulquiorra began, but the man held his hand up.

"As long as I know that our plan is in motion, I can rest easy. You are _such_ an asset to me, to my kingdom. I thank you." The man said, standing and readjusting his robe.

Ulquiorra did the same, he nodded his head to the man, rewrapping his chiton, and retying all of its links over the top of his arms, and around his waist.

"Keep that in mind, I'll return when I can or send word." The man smiled, ducking out of the doorway and down the road until he was gone from sight. Ulquiorra waited a moment, he continued to adjust himself, and then stepped out into the road, heading off in the opposite direction. It didn't take long for him to run into trouble though. A pair of men approached him quickly, taking each side of Ulquiorra to stop him.

"Wow, was that *Antigonos we saw you with?" One said, dropping an overly friendly elbow over the hollow's shoulder and leaning in on it. Ulquiorra stopped and turned to him, watching him with calm eyes.

The man behind him held a cold bright blade against Ulquiorra's neck and licked the shell of his ear. They were guards, their uniform tunics short and adorned with purples and holding short swords. "What would someone like you, be doing with someone like him?" He asked.

The man pulled back from Ulquiorra quickl, and the man in front of him gasped. The second one had dropped his blade, and Ulquiorra felt the warm spray of liquid, he would have guessed urine, but the look on the first man's face told him otherwise.

Quickly, he was pulled aside and the first man puked up a good mouthful of blood as the dagger from the second man pieced his neck.

"Ya' ok?" Ulquiorra turned. Ichigo, through Ulquiorra's eyes, turned to see a towering monster. The same jagged tooth grin stared down at him, a scar through the left side of his face, which apparently he had in real life too, short curly black hair. _Oh, short hair doesn't suit him._ He found himself thinking.

_Hush._ Ulquiorra told him and, as the man turned, Ichigo saw that it was just pulled back in a tight ponytail.

The man wore a plain white tunic; around his waist was a belt that had thin strips of leather hanging from it. Zaraki had no weapons, go figure; those were things they handed out in battle he figured, since they were all criminals and slaves.

"You?" Ulquiorra said, he looked Zaraki up and down and smiled to him. "Thank you." He finished.

"You know me?" He asked.

"They call you The Titan." Ulquiorra took a step back to fix his chiton a little. "People presume that you must have committed quite the crime. You suddenly rose to victory and fame without suffering many battles, as though you were just set there as you are now."

"Eh? Crime? I'm no criminal, not that I care much."

"Oh? Were you a slave?" Ulquiorra asked curiously.

"Nah, I chose it, a life of fighting. And now they're looking to give me my life back."

"Oh, well congratulations." Ulquiorra nodded to Zaraki.

"You serious? I hate it. I don't want to go back to living out there, where I can be punished for striking another man. I'd rather stay here and be praised for slicing him into little pieces!" Zaraki laughed.

_God, he is mad. Wait, they could choose to be gladiators?_ Ichigo asked.

_They could, not all of them were criminals or slaves._ Ulquiorra's voice sounded a tad irate and Ichigo decided just to continue watching.

"Well, I thank you for saving me, good luck in _not_ being granted your freedom." He smiled to the brute and began to turn.

"Ehh? You think that was a free good deed I just did?" The man sniggered, grabbing Ulquiorra by the shoulder.

The hollow didn't seem surprised though, he only sighed and turned back, one hand untying the golden rope around his waste. "I didn't know, although, I was had by another not too long ago, you'll have to forgive me for still being—"

"Just means you're prepped and ready to go, so I don't have to waste any time being careful." Zaraki laughed. He unhooked the leather belt and tossed it near the foot of a well before pushing Ulquiorra up against a wall.

He turned the hollow around and ground into him with a sizable hard on. The slender form between him and the wall let out a satisfied moan.

Ichigo couldn't help but feel literally afraid of Zaraki. When he lifted up his tunic and the back of Ulquiorra's Chiton, he got a good look at what the hollow was up against. Regardless of how experienced Ulquiorra was, he couldn't imagine anyone being ready for what the Shinigami had.

Zaraki bit at the back of Ulquiorra's neck, far harder than Antigonos had, and took himself in hand to rub up against the hollow. The pale one gasped sharply, he arched more so that the taller one could get a better aim. The sound emitted was one Ichigo had never heard from the hollow before. It was a mix between a pained moan and a gasp, much louder than he'd heard too. Ulquiorra always seemed to show some amount of control, but the boy doubted whether he was prepared for this one or not.

Ulquiorra's head fell softly to rest against the wall and he instantly began panting. Ichigo figured out that the panting was a sort of control, but that began to fail and Ulquiorra's eye brows furrowed tightly together, he had to bite his lip just to keep quiet in the open.

Zaraki on the other hand, didn't seem to care. He gave little grunts and groans and found delectable patches of skin to bruise and bloody before moving onto more skin. Ulquiorra would need a lot of rest after this, and a good wash to clean off the blood from the guard before.

He slid his hands up and folded them over one another so his head was resting against something softer, while his feet spread out and arched up onto his tiptoes. When he did that, the stiff spongy head of Zaraki's cock rubbed against his prostate, it was far deeper than he was used to, the thrusts longer and the gladiator's girth far wider. Ulquiorra gave up and let a loud moan escape him, gasping sharply as his head jerked back in surprise of the sudden flashes behind his eyes.

His legs began to shake and Zaraki took that hint and forced Ulquiorra to kneel. He was still positioned up right for the most part, his hands resting against the wall before him while his slender spine arched sharply to meet Zaraki's thrusts.

Ulquiorra gasped sharply when he felt the other's nails digging into his hips, he looked down to see blood dripping down the tops of his thighs. Zaraki's nails were sharp unmanicured, and jagged enough to cause the hollow damage. He didn't have his precious hierro skin to protect him.

All the while Ichigo could feel his physical arm trying to resist Ulquiorra, he wanted to pull away from the vision, he didn't want to watch anymore and in fact, he wanted to ask about the scene earlier, but Ulquiorra wouldn't let him. He could tell the hollow enjoyed this.

_Stop_ Ichigo told him, but nothing happened. Ichigo felt out the hollow in the physical world. He grabbed a hold of something and began wrestling with it. Ichigo heard the hollow laugh softly. _Please._ He begged, but his actions were a little more violent than his plea. Finally, as Zaraki let a loud growl out, right next to Ulquiorra's ear who let a sort of cry out just as they both came, Ichigo felt his hand released, the vision faded to black and he released how he'd gotten the Hollow to release him.

He opened his eyes to a somewhat surprised Ulquiorra, staring up at him as Ichigo found that he was straddling the hollow's lap, both of his wrists tightly gripped in each of Ichigo's.

"Stop it…" Ichigo was panting softly, he looked utterly defeated and Ulquiorra closed his eyes, relaxing his arms as the boy held onto them.

"Have I really threatened your preference this dearly?" He asked.

Ichigo couldn't say anything, he looked ashamed, possibly at feeling so vulnerable, but this, Ulquiorra found interesting. The boy sat up, sliding off of Ulquiorra's lap, he was looking at it. "Why… after reliving that memory, aren't you… you know." Ichigo asked irritably.

"I don't know. I suppose it would take more than that. I could let myself be aroused by the memory." He offered but Ichigo shook his head.

The boy sat back and pushed the thought from his mind and looked Ulquiorra in the eyes. "So who was that other guy?" He asked, was that any part of the conspiracy Yumichika had mentioned.

"That was Antigonos, one of Alexander's commanders. He later took the Eastern territories, namely Byzantium, after Alexander died, and his legacy was up for the taking." Ulquiorra sounded very matter of factly.

"Byzantium… what do you mean?" he didn't understand why Ulquiorra had emphasized that.

"That was my interest, Byzantium. It's between two large bodies of water, and so it saw a lot of foreign trade."

"And that interested you?"

"It did, very much so." He agreed and smiled to himself, almost seeming fond of the discussion.

Ichigo waited a moment, but it seemed Ulquiorra was done talking. He sighed, rubbing his face and stood up. "I need something to eat, do want anything?" The hollow shook his head, seeming a bit tired and he laid himself down on the unrolled mat next to Ichigo.

"You're going to sleep again?" He asked. The hollow nodded and rolled over.

_What ever._ And with that the teen left.

Author's Notes:

Antigonos was a commander of Alexander during their many campaigns. After Alexander died, he was one of the commanders who was appointed Satrap (left in charge) of the Asia Minor Territories, this included Byzantium, which then became Constantinople under Constantine, and later Turkey. He was nicknamed Monophthalmos, or "One-Eyed."

Author comments:

I thought I'd point out, I'm Jewish by blood, but I really have no faith. XD I celebrate Christmas with my parents and Hanukkah with my Grandma and her friends. I'll have a Christmas special later on too, I promise. I guess my faith is Frisbeetarianism: the belief that after you die, your soul floats up to get stuck on the roof. I bet a lot of exciting things go on up there.


	6. The Open Road

And since half of my family celebrates Christmas, myself included. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Have fun guys, I hope you enjoy this. ^w^ There really isn't anything Christmasy about this chapter. All you need to know is that there's a ton of sex. XD That's the important thing, really. Right? ^w^

* * *

Chapter VI

Ichigo had plenty to think about at the shop. Later that night, he actually did do some homework. The boy figured that he should be returning to his own bedroom soon, the only thing that was keeping him there was Ulquiorra.

He almost felt like leaving immediately though, when Urahara found it appropriate to ask Ichigo to tidy up for him. He wondered why he hadn't asked the hollow at all. From what Renji had told him of his many times staying with the shop keeper, he'd had _plenty_ to do while he stayed there for free.

It was to keep the boy busy. He seemed far more likely to settle into some sort of depression rooted in his role as a living Shinigami if left on his own. Yoruichi had brought that to Kisuke's attention. Thus, these chores really were for Ichigo's own good.

It was nearly half passed eleven when he'd finished. He had cursed Urahara constantly while he'd worked and he cursed him one more time for good measure before shutting the door to the man's stock room.

Ichigo passed by his room while heading to the shower, he peeked by in passing, and saw a very naked Ulquiorra stretching out across his tatami matt.

The boy shut his eyes tightly, feeling his cheeks heart suddenly, it felt too cold to take an erection depleting shower before bed, so he tried his hardest not to think of it. He actually began listing off the various categories Urahara had in his stock room until he'd managed to forget.

His train of thought moved quickly, with a little force, to the homework he'd been given in his writing class: Write a short story.

Ichigo half wondered if Ulquiorra would forbid him to use his story for himself, of course he would change it a little bit. The focus of the assignment was character development, so Ichigo had to be careful with what he changed. He'd done alright with storyline and climax on the last assignment.

The boy began to lay out a path for his story. There was a beginning of course, although he had yet to learn of the ending. The path had little trails straying here and there; they were small conflicts he could add in to make the story more interesting, each one lead back to the main path, like the straying veins in a leaf.

Ichigo gave his hair a quick wash and then simply enjoyed the water, slumping under the head and turning the temperature up until he thought his skin would begin to peal off and run down the drain.

Perhaps it wouldn't benefit him to move back to his own room yet. He needed to have this assignment worked into a rough draft within the month. Within that time the boy would have to find out everything he could about Ulquiorra's dangerous lifestyle and where it took him.

Ichgio stepped from the shower, pulling a towel around his waste and leaving to the hamper in the hall. He tossed his clothes from the day inside, and then headed into their dark room.

All he could find, without turning the lights on, was a pair of black boxers. The boy blushed, but he was too distracted to care. He pulled them on, then pulled the blanket from his matt and wrapped it around himself. He sat down cross-legged beside Ulquiorra, waiting, listening to see if the Hollow really was asleep.

Good, he sounded dead to the world, just a slow steady breathing. The back of his tongue and throat were blocking the passage of air now and then, so Ichigo could hear this small clicking noise in the back of Ulquiorra's throat when he inhaled and then exhaled.

The teen made himself more comfortable, so that his arm wouldn't touch the Hollow and wake him up before the boy could begin.

As Ichigo stretched his fingers out, just two, he reached across slowly, almost holding his breath as he neared Ulquiorra's collar bone, nearing the Hollow's hole there. Ichigo's fingers, this time, missed the edges, they dove straight in, and the room around him seemed to swirl down and into the void. What was left, was a much older time. The room was wider, the walls plainer.

A long wooden table stretched across the wall opposite Ichigo, it had a bowl of pomegranate, and a cloth with a half eaten one next to it, the dark red seeds scattered across its surface.

Ichigo looked around, the scene before him turning to the right as he heard a struggled noise, followed by, "Do you want your dear mother to die at the hands of low life men? To be ravaged by them? I can't protect her if you don't cooperate." He saw a man sitting on a wooden day bed covered with thick woven sheets for cushion. The man had a boy pulled into his lap, and the boy had his shoulders rounded forward, his hands in his lap as he straddled the much older man.

Ichigo knew this man, he was the father of the biggest boy who'd bullied Ulquiorra in his earliest memory. It seems the visions had backtracked a bit. He'd seen this in a much simpler series of visions that had been on fast forward. But now…

The man pulled Ulquiorra closer to him in his lap, and the boy went rigid, feeling the other's hardened cock under him. "Enough. "The man growled, lifted a vial of olive oil and poured some into his hand, pulling the boy close into his chest.

Ulquiorra wimpered as that hand trailed down his naked back, dripping between his spread ass cheeks and the fingers, without much warning, slipped in three at a time to stretch the boy.

Ulquiorra made no noise at that, he hid his face against the man's chest. "I see Dipteros has already stretched you." He smiled, beginning to slide his fingers quickly into and out of the boy.

He didn't waste much time with the stretching; instead, Ulquiorra was lifted and turned to face away and the father's much larger cock positioned at his rear.

There was a slight gasp as Ulquiorra was forced down upon the man, his mouth fell open, more tears streaming down his cheeks, which dragged the dark mineral based makeup from around his eyes and down his cheeks eerily.

Other than that, Ulquiorra didn't resist much, he even began to moan softly, although it seemed like an act. The man groaned against the side of his head, "Goood, this'll become natural to you, I promise. I'm sure the other boys could give you some pointers if you needed any." He laughed softly, splaying his fingers out across Ulquiorra pale soft chest, pinching a pink nipple now and then.

Eventually, Ulquiorra hid his face behind his hands as he came, shuddering. He emerged biting his lip until it bled. The man wasn't done as quickly, but once he'd finished, he pulled the boy off of him and laid him out on the day bed beside him.

After that, the vision blurred, spurring on ahead until he saw the same scene, only an older Ulquiorra, he was still young, but thank goodness he was no longer a boy.

This Ulquiorra was presenting a pouch of gold to the same man, who did not look pleased. "I assume your guest left you early?" The man said carefully, watching Ulquiorra. The Hollow simply smiled at him before turning. "If this has to do with that loon that sits in the streets, criticizing our very existence, I'll expect you to work twice as hard tomorrow, and we may simply have to visit the old man."

"Diogenes shames the loons that wander these streets." Ulquiorra smiling over his shoulder. "He has many good points about our world."

"Are you going to go out there with a lantern to join him?" The man laughed.

"No, but what he has to teach us is worth listening to at the very least." Ulquiorra smiled, turning to leave the frustrated man behind.

The extent of this scene changed quickly to another, the room once again blurring.

This time, Ichigo found himself in a smaller room, and he saw Ulquiorra sitting by a window, gazing out at the night sky.

A man entered the scene, dressed in a white looking chiton, trimmed with red. "Have you found him?" He asked Ulquiorra, and the younger man nodded.

"He's red right? The color of blood?"

"Yes." The man smiled, taking a place behind Ulquiorra, his hands sloping down over the Hollow's shoulders, to caress the each nape above his collar bone.

Ichigo could see out the window now, the only red thing up in the sky that he could see was Mars.

"Mighty and terrible Ares is headed off to battle somewhere." The man laughed softly.

"You don't think he'll come after you simply for saying that?" Ulquiorra questioned softly, removing himself from the window and moved over to the bed.

"Now why would he care about some crazy philosopher?" The man laughed, when he laughed, the number of wrinkles increased, he was probably at least ten years older than Ulquiorra, maybe into his early to mid thirties.

"You hold a good place in Athens, you make a lot of decisions here." Ulquiorra pointed out, leaning back against the pillows.

"Well, I'm crazy, they say, nonetheless." He smiled, joining Ulquiorra on the bed as he leaned over, placing soft kisses over the Hollow's neck.

"Are my lessons at an end?" he whispered, his arms sliding out from under him.

"I assumed you thought they were, when you came to my bed here."

"Would you prefer it that I sit on your floor?"

The man chuckled, "I think an afternoon of star gazing is enough of a lesson for you." He lowered his hand to the hem of Ulquiorra's long chiton, lifting it up over his thighs.

"I should probably return soon, I can't keep telling him that I fell asleep in a client's bed." Ulquiorra laughed softly, widening his legs.

"I would pay you, so that you won't get in any more trouble, but I assume this lesson should suffice, I can't pay you with gold for all the times you've kept my bed warm, but if you allow me to teach you…"

"No, I am grateful for it, I'd rather know of the world, I don't always plan on working for Patrokles." He sighed. But the downward fall of their conversation was interrupted by a sudden gasp from the hollow, how let his head fall back, arching softly.

"Mmm, I see you've already prepared for me." He purred, taking advantage of the newly exposed neck.

Ulquiorra let his elbows out from under him finally, wrapping his arms up around the man's neck as he fell flat on the bed.

The two of them began moaning together softly and eventually Ulquiorra began groaning as the man entered him, finding a steady rhythm.

Ichigo decided to excuse Ulquiorra for all of the sex scenes in his memories, he figured, that with his profession, he should expect it. But the boy still intended to find out more from the Hollow's hole, of course, that was Ichigo's reason for not withdrawing his hand.

Ulquiorra stopped the man suddenly, pushing him up and then over onto his back, both of them moving awkwardly to accommodate for the small bed. Ulquiorra adjusted himself atop his teacher, and then resumed their same pace, only changing the style of thrust. The man did what he could to thrust up from under him his hand stroking over the Hollow in time, but Ulquiorra had taken to his erotic undulating. That same way he'd delivered himself atop Ichigo.

Ulquiorra's back would curl, pushing forward and off of the man, and then at the last minute it would arch and push back against him, the man's cock sliding back in smoothly. This was a tiring exercise for anyone else, but it had been so natural to Ulquiorra, it was as simple as walking for him, rarely tiring from the motion.

The Hollow was able to keep this up until the man beneath him came, his hips jutting upwards quickly, his rear even lifting up off the bed. This move struck Ulquiorra in the right spot hard enough to bring his own already building climax. They both gasped sharply, shivering, groaning. Ulquiorra fell over with his head landing next to the other's, still slowly, lazily undulating against the man.

Finally, the Hollow rolled off, and he took his place beside his teacher, breathing harshly as he recovered.

Ichigo startled at the sudden sound from two rooms away. The philosopher rolled off of his bed, letting his chiton fall back down around his knees and tidying up his hair. Ulquiorra too jumped up startled by the sudden bang. They both seemed a bit caught off guard, but when Ulquiorra saw three men as they entered, he seemed to pale even more.

"Ahh, I see, this is where you've been hiding. Is this who you've been treating?" The man asked softly, bending down to take a sniff of Ulquiorra, he could smell the sex on him, it was still in the room even, fresh.

Ulqiuorra stood from the bed, stepping between the three men and his teacher. "Ah, no, I'm sorry, that's not how it works, my pretty little thing. Patrokles won't enjoy hearing about how you gave away a free session so you could learn what one plus one is." The man laughed. He took a hold of Ulquiorra's arm, who only took a shot with his knee, landing a decent blow to the man's diaphragm. But it didn't take long for one of the other men to rush passed him.

"Let this be a lesson to you." He growled back at Ulquiorra, and the man's arm struck at the philosopher, burying a six inch dagger up under his ribs.

Ulquiorra spun in time to see just that, and his eyes widened. The scene seemed to blur once more to Ichigo, but he could still see the men continuing to assault the poor man, one of the three men holding Ulquiorra back, rubbing a hardened cock into the small of his back.

The hollow remained expressionless, watching his teacher as blood pooled beneath his body. They left him in the room with him, and then he seemed to come to a wild realization.

Finally, the scene had shifted once again, that same house where Ichigo had first seen the woman resembling Orihime appeared; it was ablaze. Ulquiorra quickly rushed for the door, but his neighbors pulled him back in time. After hours, and still standing barely in the morning light, the flames finally ceased, simmering still as the Hollow entered, his neighbors standing back to allow him to do so.

The inside was falling apart, the roof was pitch black, as though, if you were to look up at it, you would be looking into a deep dark void.

Ulquiorra examined each room slowly, he had a silk sheet pulled tightly around him, holding a corner up over his mouth as he continued to look. Each room was empty, the trinkets and vases and such had all broken and scattered the floor. The only thing that kept Ulquiorra there, was the sickening smell of burnt flesh.

He was determined to find what he sought, and eventually, he did. In the furthest room back, the bedroom. Ulquiorra froze, his face looked up blankly. As Ichigo peered into the room, he felt the sudden need to withdraw his hand. A human figure was propped up, its arms tied up, reaching out to the corners of the room like a big Y. The figure was kneeling, its head hanging forward in a grotesque way, as though it had been broken. All of it was charred, most of the skin and tissue was melted away, just a thin near bone left. Ulquiorra could see his mother's gold strand hanging from her burnt and broken neck, he could see where she'd torn and nearly broken her wrists just trying to escape, there was already a great deal of damage everywhere on her body, but he figured she had been fighting her restraints, they'd done a bit of damage on the tendons as well it seemed.

Finally, a few of the neighbors from outside followed him in after a while, one of the women gasped at the sight of his mother, they must have been friends, for she let a loud cry out to Athena, shielding her eyes and reaching out blindly for Ulquiorra. "No no," another said, "this is the work of Nemesis." She said, bowing her head. The women wept for a long time after she brought him out, but Ulquiorra only stared ahead of him, his eyes unfocused, his lips parted only a little, he didn't even speak much, until:

"My goodness, what on earth has happened here? You could see the smoke clear over on the other side of the city." A familiar voice said incredulously.

Ulquiorra and his neighbors and passersby turned to see Patrokles standing in the street with the three men from earlier. None of them had smiles on their faces, but none of them looked surprised.

Ulquiorra only stared back, his mouth closing, his eyes soft but sharp at the same time. He moved away from the people who surrounded him and thanked them or their concern. "I must be heading home now." He told them. Most of them looked shocked at his reaction, but they gave him a look of understanding, as though expecting him to come up with some kind of payback.

Finally, the scene blurred once again, Ichigo couldn't bear to think of that body in there that had so much resembled Orihime.

What appeared before him now, was a grand entry way to what seemed to be a temple. Ulquiorra was proceeding up the steps to the Parthenon, slowly following after a group of men ahead of him. They were very much like his friend, some of them much older, like in the very first vision he was shown.

"Aww, my boy, so good to see you, I do hope that you can recover after such a horrible thing." One of the senate members consoled him, patting softly on Ulquiorra's shoulder.

"I thank you, but I hope you've come to realize that your group here today is short one. I know of the men who are responsible for that, and I know they had a hand in my mother's death as well." He sounded all business at this point, and Ichigo could see why.

The men looked shocked, looking amongst them to take a count and then come to realize who wasn't there.

"Ah, you're right!" The oldest exclaimed. "Was… was he…."

"He was, I was there to witness it, my employer tries to keep me from my studies, he does not wish that I learn on my own, I know that your friend would disagree."

"Yes, he believed it was a right and a responsibility to have at least a basic knowledge." Another one had spoken up. He sighed and shook his head. "So, with your knowledge, what do you propose that we do about this?" The man stepped closer to Ulquiorra, draping an arm over his shoulder so that he could lead him and the group to a more secluded corner, looking through the Doric columns to make sure that no one could be hiding behind them.

"Well, I know that the senate would love to change that side of the city. It has long since been closed to the general public, they favor only their family and friends, do they not?"

"It has." The man nodded, following along.

"And they've always been less than enthusiastic when it came to cooperating with surrounding families and neighborhoods. I assume it would be much easier to finally unify the city if their vast little section would submit to the senate's wishes." Ulquiorra sounded only as though he were speculating, but Ichigo could tell what the Hollow was doing. He couldn't help but feel impressed with how persuasive he was being.

The men all nodded to one another, listening intently. "And how do you presume we get them to submit?"

"Don't. They won't submit, you've tried time and time again. Is it not useless at this point?"

"Of course." The older man said again, pouting slightly.

"Although, if they were to be removed, or simply… vanish. There's a whole grouping of homes and businesses that would suddenly become open and ready for your rebuilding." He sounded as though he'd suddenly realized something.

"We've never had a reason before to harass them in such a way, although, perhaps the guards will assist us, now that one of our own has been lost, and what a great loss it is. *Aristophones will want to know of this straight away." The majority of the men left down the temple steps quickly.

Two of them remained. "You know, you'll be free, once Patrokles is out of the picture, and I dare say that you have enough friends with good standing status to make your own." He told Ulquiorra.

"I realize that, it'll be nice to be on my own finally, I look forward to being far more involved in my own city now that I don't have to worry about payment to him."

The man laughed softly, but sadly, he wrapped an arm around Ulquiorra's waist, while the other walked a short distance ahead. "Perhaps you should stop by more often, we have plenty of occasional feasts, I'm sure our guests would love to see a new young face added to the mix."

Ulquiorra nodded to them both, following them out of the Parthenon and across the acropolis.

What was to come was a series of smaller events, angry meetings between enemies, and finally, the attacks on Patrokles and his vast family. He understood that the land owned by his family was then given to the city, new businesses opened up here and there, and much deserving families were able to live in homes that shielded them from the outside world.

Ulquiorra was given the home of his teacher, and made a guest among the senate court. He was now a Hetaera, free of any obligation to his previous employer, or anyone else for that matter.

Ichigo felt that it was a good enough end for now. He removed his fingers, feeling a rush as the room returned to normal. He looked down, Ulquiorra was the same, he was fast asleep, he hadn't moved, and with the Ichigo himself straightened out his blanket, it was still warm as he sank under it and pulled it up so that it covered his shoulders. He laid on his side to face Ulquiorra continuing to watch him until he couldn't keep his eyes opened anymore. The boy fell asleep, dreaming of what the next chapter might be in Ulquiorra's life.

* * *

Authors Notes:

*Aristophanes was the Archon of Athens from 331 BCE – 330 BCE. This is my attempt at giving my readers an idea of when this takes place. XD Instead of 331 – 330 BCE, the Greeks used the Archons as a reference, they were like leaders who resided in Athens.

Authors Comments:

I didn't have any inside jokes, I'm sorry. ;-;

REVIEWS: I would like to encourage people to leave reviews. If you like it enough to favorite it, at least tell me what about it you liked so I can keep that in the chapters to come. Or if you have any qualms with it, please let me know!

They also encourage me to continue. w I won't keep going if people don't let me know they enjoy it.

Enjoy your holidays! Don't get too rambunctious. XD


	7. Nightmare

Chapter VII

The rage Ichigo felt when he had become full Hollow is indescribable. He couldn't understand how Ulquiorra could remain so calm with all f that inside him, or any of the other Arrancar for that matter. He felt so hopelessly angry.

The ground beneath didn't seem there at all, everything was moving around him and he felt like he was standing still, even if he at times moved as well.

His hand reached out for something, anything, but when he felt it, he gripped it hard, like it would escape him and he'd be left alone with this rage.

The Quatra Espada winced, and Ichigo took hold of his arm and swung him around, hearing his wings crack and break against the building structures that were left just barely intact.

He picked up the Espada and threw him into the ground, his hand around his neck this time. As the foundation crumbled beneath Ulquiorra and the new Hollow's force, he coughed, gagging as he tried to breathe.

The hollow brought his face closer to Ulquiorra, those empty eyes glaring back at him as he screamed at the Espada.

This wasn't enough, torturing Ulquiorra like this wasn't enough for him, he wanted him more than dead. Ichigo wanted him to die a thousand deaths. He lifted Ulquiorra up and then forced him back into the ground, driving him deeper.

Finally the Espada seemed to lose consciousness. The New Hollow paused a moment, the world around him still crackling with his own reiatsu. He lifted the limp Arrancar up and threw him once more into another wall.

The blow had brought a sudden breath into Ulquiorra. He was still unconscious, but his body was working hard to bring him back.

As the Espada slumped limply against the wall, Ichigo came up behind him, his nails swiping quickly at Ulquiorra's back, raining dark red blood down across the ground.

The Espada gasped sharply and his vision flashed as he felt harsh hands gripping at his upper arms. They pulled him up, his arms straining to lift, his hands weakly feeling out the wall in front of him.

He was placed against the wall, with a hard shove, and his head swooned as he finally gained any sense of direction. Ulquiorra's fingers sought out cracks in the wall, gripping to them for support.

The new Hollow's hot breath seared across the back of his neck. A hand with those sharp nails pulled his hair aside, cutting across the back of his neck, like the boy couldn't control the razors he had on the tips of his fingers.

It seemed that the Hierro wasn't enough against this new Hollow. One tiny touch sliced through it like butter. Ulquiorra gasped as a hand dragged down his back, down the small dip in the middle of it until he fell to the crevice between his cheeks.

The Espada shivered as another hand sought out his left side, starting at his hip and trailing up over his breast to his collarbone. The Hollow looped a sharp finger under Ulquiorra's collar bone, yanking at it. The piece of bone was strong, it wouldn't give but it did wrench and delectable gasp from the Espada, almost a cry. He held tightly to the collar bone as muscles from Ulquiorra's neck pushed against his finger, a steady stream of blood running down to join the other tinier streams of blood. Ulquiorra was panting to keep from crying out. He leaned his head back and turned it slightly, seeing those empty eyes behind him. "End it."

The Quatra Espada, seemingly the most complicated being Ichigo had ever met, definitely the hardest to figure out, had demanded the simplest thing. Finish him.

He roared in the Espada's ear, hot breath burning the pale shell and his cheek. That hand that he dug under his collarbone then reached up to pull on one of his horns, yanking his head back and to the side.

The other hand was adjusting something behind the Espada, clothing, then it gripped at Ulquiorra's hip and without warning a blunt object pressed up against him.

It dragged slickly down from the top of his butt crack to his sac and then up again. That hand dug into his hip and turned his rear upward more, arching the Espada's back.

At the time the monster was too angry, it didn't know what it wanted, it just wanted to feel and hear the Espada crying out. It had this need to hear that, and some how the need had turned into this. Once he felt the tiny give of the Espada's anus, it took the opportunity and drove itself in deep, pushing Ulquiorra into the wall.

It wasn't a smooth action, it was awkward and took several thrusts of his hip to get himself buried to the hilt. He paused, the new Hollow shuddering, enjoying the tight warmth, be it tender flesh or blood he didn't care. Ulquiorra was between him and the wall, the same height usually, but he was slouching forward, shuddering but not breathing, he was holding his breath.

Ichigo's hands gripped more tightly, pulling his head back once more to reveal the Espada's creamy white neck. What a beautiful site, that neck, like a canvas. The hollow buried its head in Ulquiorra's neck, against it he could feel the shallow breaths Ulquiorra was taking as a precaution. He was trying not to cry out, not to make a sound. He was as quiet as ever.

With a long slick tongue tracing over the warm pulsing skin, the Hollow found a tendon beneath it, he opened wide and bit onto it, at the same time pulling his hips away from Ulquiorra. The Espada gasped sharply, followed by a strangled groan, his entire body shuddering beneath Ichigo.

This thrust was steadier, having already created a path for himself. He drove back in, and as though the Espada anticipated this he kept quiet, he only shivered more.

This only enraged the beast more. It growled into the warm skin in his mouth, tasting of nickels, and drove in harder again.

He let go of Ulquiorra's horn and found his collar bone again, gripping under it with two fingers this time as he drove in, earning, finally, a sudden cry from the Espada.

Ulquiorra's head slumped forward against the wall, resting against it. His body stopped trembling, stopped trying to control itself when he felt the beast's tongue graze over the hole in the back of his neck.

Finally, he let a groan out, one arm bending so that his head rested against it instead of the hard wall. His other hand gripped at Ichigo's arm, the one hooked under his collar bone for support, to take the pressure off of it.

Ichigo let his tongue delve into the hollows hole, enjoying the moans he was getting from that alone. As though he suddenly sympathized for his enemy, the thrusts became smoother, better aimed, and that brought juicier moans out of Ulquiorra. Ichigo's rage was dwindeling, and instead there was this building torrent inside of him, rushing from his gut to his loins.

The beast roared against Ulquiorra again, driving deeper and deeper, until a sudden flash filled his vision. Ichigo's eyes opened and the flash seemed to subside.

Ulquiorra was gone, or, he wasn't gone, but upon further inspection, he wasn't beneath Ichigo, and Ichigo wasn't buried balls deep in the Arrancar.

The boy's sheets were soaked with sweat and God knows what else as he sat up. He was panting and hot. He looked beside him to see the Arrancar still laying out on his Tatami mat, watching Ichigo.

"At first I thought you were having a bad dream, but it appears I was wrong." Ulquiorra said bemusedly.

Ichigo cursed at him, balling up the covers and hiding himself by shoving them in his lap.

The scream that he'd heard in his dream, though, was outside. Ichigo jumped suddenly as a Hollow's cry broke through the silent night air just outside. He couldn't tell if it was close, or just loud.

"A hollow?" He gasped, jumping up and rushing to the window. He didn't care that his pajama bottoms were still damp. The air around them crackled. "Shit…" He cursed, stripping out of the bottoms.

"Is that necessary." Ulquiorra questioned him, crawling out of his sheets and stretching.

"I don't want them finding my body like this while I'm gone!" He pointed out. The teen rushed pantlessly out into the hallway and disposed of the bottoms. He then rushed back in and got under a new bundle of sheets, grabbed the Substitute Shinigami badge and pulled away from his seemingly unconscious human body. Ulquiorra watched all of this curiously.

As Ichigo was getting ready to leap out through the window, he saw Ulquiorra lose his Gigai, the broken Hollow's mask appearing once again.

"Ah, that's probably a good idea Ulquiorra, those Gigais require a lot of energy." Urahara said cheerfully just outside the window. Ichigo yelped and fell backwards back into the room, looking up at Urahara with a frustrated glare.

"Out of the way old man! We're in a hurry!" He growled at the shopkeeper.

Urahara only pouted and stepped aside.

Once outside, the two rushed off in the direction of the Hollow.

"Is that why you've been sleeping so much?" Ichigo asked Ulquiorra.

"Possibly." He answered.

"I just, never imagined you as the type to sleep all the time." He pointed out carefuly, trying not to judge the Espada too blatantly.

Ulquiorra said nothing, in fact, as they neared the Hollow, he seemed to fall back a bit.

"Ichigo!" Rukia called from behind them. They both looked back just as the female Shinigami joined them both. "This one seems strong, Ichigo. Be careful." She warned them both.

Just as the three came upon the scene, they froze. A swarm of winding limbs stretched out from a small core about fifty feet away. Scattered around it were translucent figures, frozen in place, fading slowly, one by one.

They were souls. Their faces were contorted into horrified expressions, reaching up for the sky.

"What the hell?" Ichigo gaped.

"There, in the center, that's him!" Rukia gasped, rushing forward, with Ichigo shortly behind her.

He turned to see Ulquiorra standing there still, instead of rushing after them. "Ulquiorra, come on!" He growled. The Hollow didn't move.

He heard Rukia cry out and turned just in time to see one of the winding limbs throw her into a street lamp.

Turning back he yelled at the Espada to help them, but he was gone. Ulquiorra had disappeared. He went in, attacking the hollow several times, half expecting the Arracnar to join in at any time. But he didn't.

The Hollow was mocking them both. "You can't please everyone, I guess. All that's left is a bunch of art Critics." He laughed. The souls were his artwork. He'd frozen them as they were devoured, only the image of their last moments were left for a few lingering minutes.

The obnoxious Hollow wasn't even taking them seriously, he toyed with them instead. It took a moment to see that he was more than a Hollow, he was an Arrancar.

Ichigo and Rukia fell back at that point, only defending attacks, trying to figure out how to attack him. Nothing seemed to work, and after a while, he vanished.

"Damnit!" Ichigo cursed.

"I need to report this, they may have records on him." Rukia said, and at once she pulled her little pseudo-cell phone out and began entering data to send to headquarters.

"Ulquiorra just ran off!" Ichigo growled, looking off in the direction of the Espada.

"No one assigned him to fight with us." Rukia reminded Ichigo, but that didn't help the teen.

As they were walking home, Ichigo noticed the rising sun. "I have school soon." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess going back to sleep would be pointless." He yawned.

Rukia gave him a comforting pat on the back, followed by a jab at his side and rushed off. "I'll see you in an hour, then." She said brightly.

"Damnit." He pouted, rubbing at the sore rib she'd just struck. "That bastard." Ichigo still wanted to know why Ulquiorra had ditched them, but that would have to wait until after school.

Author's notes:

*Diogenes: (412 BCE – 323 BCE) I forgot to put this in the last Chapter. Diogenes of Sinope is said to be the first Cynic. Whether that's true or not, he lived in poverty and criticized everything about human life and the world during those times. He used to carry around a lit lamp during the day and claim that he was looking for an honest man. I liked the idea of Ulquiorra being a cynic, it fits him I think. So I included that in there for that purpose.

Author's Comments:

HAPPY NEW YEARS GUYS! I hope you had a great Holiday season, and continue to! PLEASE be careful! I don't know about you, but it's snowing like mad here (Yay ^^), and with the roads most likely being plagued by drunk drivers tonight, the combination of the two will make for a dangerous commute from party to party. So Please be careful, regardless! But also have fun!

It's a new year, and a new beginning! Make it a good one! 3


	8. What does it mean?

[Skip this, it's just intro]

I'm back! The semester is over! And the crazy cosplay making and what not is over…

A few exciting things: One, my mom's real dad's sister did a geneology thing and I found

out I'm related to Alexander the Great…. Sort of….. pissed myself there…. And also

Princess Diana, but who cares. XD

The second thing is….. Last weekend (Anime Oasis Convention weekend)…. I had

dinner with Johnny Young Bosch. Me and two friends… and his drummer, Maurice, who

is (HOT), and Michael Coleman. It was awesome. For those who don't know, he does the

English voice for Ichigo… needless to say… I feel like I've crossed some inappropriate

boundary that should not have been crossed. Although I usually only watch the Japanese

ones, so that makes me feel better. He was also the second black Power Ranger, after

they realized that the black, red and yellow rangers probably should not have been

played by a black guy, an Indian, and an Asian. XD He also played Vash, Kaneda, and

Lelouch. The end, happy days. ON WITH THE SHOW!

I promise there is PLENTY of smut in this chapter. I was pretty pleased.

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:THE STORY IS DOWN HERE! XD~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:

Chapter VIII

For almost a week now, Ulquiorra had been far more elusive than Ichigo was used to. He was irritable too.

After the new arrancar Ichigo fought, Ulquiorra remained missing for the night. No one knew where he was. When he did return, he was too vague about where he'd been.

Ichigo had straightened Urahara's stock, done inventory, tested new products, cleaned the rain gutters and roof, and much more. But he hadn't seen Ulquiorra helping out in any way. He hoped it was because Urahara was performing extensively harsh experiments on the hollow, although that may have been more Mayuri's method than the shop owner's.

On the other hand, the boy was beginning to miss his family. He'd always missed them, but he actually wanted to return home now. He was torn between staying at the shop and going back to his own place.

Ulquiorra had stopped wearing the gigai that exhausted him so much, so he wasn't really able to exploit the hollow's hole any more.

"Kurosaki-kuun!" Urahara strolled in cheerily carrying a large box that held who knows what. "You wouldn't mind helping me out, would you?"

The boy looked up from his homework, he hadn't made much progress on it anyway. It was the story he's supposed to be writing.

"I need these tagged and stored in the back, and there are some products in here that need to be checked. I want to make sure all of the pieces are there."

Ichigo sighed, taking the heavy box. "How many are there?" He asked.

"Hopefully around seventy." Urahara help up his fingers to count on, seven sets.

"Why doesn't Ulquiorra help at all? He's staying here for free to, right?" Ichigo growled as he walked off with the box.

Urahara laughed as the boy left. "At least I waited until the weekend." He called to him from inside.

Ichigo sat out on the porch with his mystery box and opened it up to get an idea of his misfortune.

He sighed. They were tiny items. Most of them were things that Rukia probably requested. Cute figurines that served some odd function. Most of them were the Chappy the Rabbit that Rukia likes so much; more of those soul capsule containers, and then a few other assorted items with Chappy the Rabbit plastered all over them. _If she ordered them, she should be going through them _he thought irritably.

The boy began to go through the box and remove everything, sorting each product into groups. Every item was in its own group, and similar items were in bigger groups.

He growled when he came to the packages that needed checking. They came with a list that said each package was to have twenty items in it. "I have to count a hundred and forty things? Gah!" He smacked the wooden column on the porch and let his head drop between his knees. He may not have been able to do any writing for school, but he could still think of a better use of his time.

"What the hell's all the yelling about?" A tall red headed Renji landed just in front of Ichigo's assortment of goods. It didn't take more than one look for him to figure it out. The fukataicho laughed at Ichigo, glad it wasn't himself in the situation.

"Shut up, Renji." Ichigo growled at him, burying his head in the box. "What are you doing here anyway?" He looked up at him curiously, taking the opportunity to procrastinate the task he'd been given.

"I was sent here to check out that arrancar you guys ran into." He said, sitting down next to Ichigo "Rukia should be back soon, she's probably being kept by Kuchiki Taicho." He sighed.

"So what do they think?" Ichigo said after a while. "About the knew arrancar."

"I can't say…"

"They won't even let you tell me?"

"No, I can't say that I understand it." He rephrased himself. "Mayuri Taicho said that there's no way something that powerful could go unnoticed. They think it's Vasto Lorde."

"Great" Ichigo sighed. "That's what Ulquiorra is." He didn't want to have to fight another Ulquiorra.

"Aren't a lot of the Espada Vasto Lorde?" Renji asked.

"I don't want to think about it." the boy sighed, going back to counting through the first package.

Renji sat beside him, amused by the task Ichigo was given. He could see the boy's frustration, and how he got lost in the counting. "Hmm, Rukia was right." He said, standing up before Ichigo.

"What?" The boy sounded confused.

"She said you're acting weird."

"Uh, how so?"

"I don't know, you're distracted I guess. She thinks you should go home to your family." The fukataicho, sat down and picked up one of the packages, mimicking Ichigo.

"I don't know if I can, it feels weird… but I kinda want to." He said dimly. "Make sure there's twenty in each one." Ichigo pointed out to him.

Renji nodded and shook his head. "All the more reason to do it. Besides, you're getting a lot of chores around here, right?" He joked. Ichigo just growled in response.

The two of them heard a creak by the door and looked up to find Urahara there. "Ahh, Abarai, good, you're just in time to help Ichigo."

"I am helping." He looked annoyed.

"If you really want to help him, there's another box full of those packages. I didn't want to give that one to the boy with his schoolwork and what not. You can count it."

"…" Renji glared at him, squeezing one of the packages in his hand.

"Ah! Careful!" Urahara gasped.

Ichigo laughed at them both, feeling a little better. That thought made him wonder if he only felt comfortable any more around his Shinigami friends, would he even feel a part of his own family if he went home?

"So you'll be staying here for a bit it sounds like." Ichigo inquired.

"Yeah, Ikkaku and Yumichika will be joining me, but I think they have a place they can stay."

_Poor Keigo_… Ichio thought. "Yumichika's coming?" he sounded worried.

"Yeah… you ok with that?" Renji asked, finishing a package and placing it next to the box on the ground.

"What does that mean?" he boy snapped.

"Well why are you concerned about Yumichika coming?" Renji shot back.

"I-I'm not!" Ichigo stopped counting having to put the package down, he wasn't doing himself any justice.

"Hey, he… kinda said some things, but you're worrying to much about it." Renji calmed down, trying to do the same to Ichigo.

"God… what'd he say?" He asked, slumping back on the porch.

"Uh, well… You're young… and we got to talking about the way things are these days, as opposed to how it was for most of us when we were growing up."

"And?" Ichigo prepared himself, swallowing hard against a lump in his throat.

"He's just concerned that you're worrying too much about what you like, it's not a big deal."

"Where did you come from that was so laid back with that kind of thing?" Ichigo sounded completely uninterested.

"Edo Japan. The point is, there were times when the world didn't care. I think now, you're television dictates a lot of it, but you're still in charge of yourself, right?" Renji was trying to make a good point, but Ichigo couldn't help but feel totally embarrassed that the red head knew.

"It's not like I already decided, ok?" He sighed.

"Well, I guess I'm saying it's ok to try things." He hinted.

"So, what, do all of you come from times when it was ok?" Ichigo growled irritably.

"Not all of us. Ukitake Taicho comes from the Holy Roman Empire. The really Catholic one." Renji put his chore aside too. This was something more important.

"I can't imagine him being a part of that scene."

"Really? With the way he obsesses over Hitsugaya Taicho?" Renji laughed, he was joking. "He did a mission in Japan, from what I understood, not something that went too well either."

"So uh… ya know. What happened when he woke up in Soul Society instead of… yeah" Ichigo laughed to himself.

"I don't know, actually." It wasn't something Renji questioned. The man was content and at peace. It didn't seem like Ukitake had been disappointed. Renji's face lit up and he turned to Ichigo. "Hey, can we go to one of those places with the music?" He asked the boy.

"Uh… a club?" He made sure he knew what Renji was talking about, but before he could answer—

"Ohh! Yeah! Can we?" Matsumoto was there apparently and bowed down over Ichigo, her face just as bright and excited, or what he could see of it around the breasts hanging over him. Speaking of breasts, Ichigo seemed to focus hard on them, trying to see if his body would react in some way.

The busty woman noticed this and donned an evil grin. She went ahead and stooped down so that they buried the poor boy, who began flailing his arms and legs.

"I think it'll be good for him!" Renji smiled, standing up to stretch.

"And we can have some drinks!" Matsumoto exclaimed excitedly.

"We can't. I need you to work, and Ichigo is still underaged." The captain said, ruining Matsumoto's excited grin.

The busty woman fell over as a flustered Ichigo came up for air. "What the hell?" He growled at her.

Matsumoto donned a pained expression and some impressively fake tears.

"Both of you knock it off. Let's go." Hitsugaya took off.

"Ah, should we tell Urahara?" Renji asked, pointing back to the shop.

"No way, he'll never let us go. Let's just sneak off." Ichigo whispered.

"Sneak off to where?" they heard the shop keepers voice. Matsumoto, Renji, and Ichigo all took off. Hitsugaya was left shaking his head, and he turned to apologize to Urahara. "So where is it you're staying?" the taller man asked.

"With Inoue Orihime." Hitsugaya spoke softly, dashing the shop keepers hopes of more free loaders to exploit.

"Hopefully this'll help the boy." Urahara smiled.

"Is it really that big a deal?"

"A lot has gone on, and this is a busy age for him, for all of them. Please don't forget that." Urahara smiled sadly after Ichigo and headed back inside.

Just behind the door the shopkeeper found a figure standing there. The solemn looking espada had an interesting look of intrigue on it. "Eaves dropping?" Urahara asked bemusedly.

"There's no point in denying that." Ulquiorra sighed, stepping out into the dim light in the kitchen.

"You really are interested in them, aren't you." The shop keeper laughed.

"I suppose, I don't understand why they're so complicated, and most of it can be avoided I'm sure."

"But life would be so boring if they avoided the complicated things." Urahara chuckled softly.

"Am I complicated?" Ulquiorra asked, somewhat out of character.

"You are actually, that's why I'm interested." Urahara confirmed that by waving his hand around his head, as though saying the Arrancar was crazy.

"I see."

"You're life especially, I'd like to find out more." Urahara drew closer to the Espada.

"That life will remain forgotten." The usually calm voice sounded stern. This stopped the shopkeeper, he was a little surprised at Ulquiorra's reaction. "I've been remembering more, which means the boy's been indulging himself. That's dangerous."

"How so?"

"There's a reason some souls can't remember their lives. They shouldn't remember them." He said darkly.

Urahara donned a saddened expression. "But that's what interests me."

"Is that why I'm here?"

"I would say so, yes." Urahara smiled at him. "That, and your ability to release _twice…_ Quite impressive."

"Then we could work something else out I'm sure."

The shop keeper's eyebrows raised some. Did he hear that correctly?

"You could assigned chores to me, like you do the boy." Ulquiorra stepped closer to Urahara. "Or I'm sure I could find something that suits your tastes."

Urahara didn't know if he should play along or not, he was trying to see if there would be any repercussions to this.

"So?"

"Hold on a minute, I'm thinking." The shop keeper defended himself some.

While the man thought a moment Ulquiorra moved towards him, stooping down before him as he leaned against the refrigerator. Urahara was slow to react, and his actions halted when he felt the hollow's lips, warm, pressing against his groin.

This seemed to answer the question for them both, and the shop keeper couldn't help but look amused. "Am I getting special treatment?" He asked ruggedly.

"Perhaps, I'm just securing a place for myself to sleep." Ulquiorra spoke against the man's groin, his breath warm.

"Oh? You're going after my bed?" The shop keeper laughed, his hips leaning out a bit.

"Any bed actually, if it happens to be yours, so be it." The hollow said and reached up for the hem of the shopkeeper's pants.

"Well if it suits you, that takes care of where Abarai Renji will sleep." Urahara's voice hitched slightly as the hollow's lips touched his bare skin, just above the soft blonde pubic hair. The hollow moved down and the shopkeeper let a satisfied moan slip slowly. "I think this will work out."

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The group of Shinigami that had left finally found a lively looking nightclub. Matsumoto was still heart broken that it was an alcohol free club, but at least the music was still good.

"Hey, we should get some drinks." Renji said, mesmerized by the bass booming around him, he could feel it in his chest and placed a hand over it.

"They only have soda and stuff." Ichigo reminded him.

"I know." He waved his hand dismissively.

Matsumoto and him left Ichigo and Hitsugaya standing there, not quite knowing what to do. "I can't picture you dancing." Ichigo admitted to the shorter shinigami.

"I don't." He confirmed, looking irritated. He would have left, but Urahara made it sound like the substitute shinigami needed them more now than ever. "Do you come here often?"

Without missing a beat, the strawberry laughed hysterically. That didn't seem like a reaction characteristic of a troubled individual to Hitsugaya.

"What?" He growled at Ichigo.

"No, nothing. It's just. That's a commonly _bad_ pickup line." Ichigo was wiping tears from his eyes. "I know you didn't mean it like that, but you just. You of all people." He continued to laugh.

The shorter Taicho decided _Screw Urahara_ and left Ichigo to fend for himself. He would find a spot on the roof to keep an eye o things.

Matsumoto came back to the boy, slinging an arm and part of a boob over his shoulder in a chum-like fashion. "I don't think I've ever seen you break loose!" She toyed, poking his sides.

"Why are you acting drunk?" The boy said, trying to steady himself under Matsumoto's weight.

"I am drunk." She grinned widely at him.

"Oi, Ichigo." The boy had a drink shoved in his hand by Renji. "_For the strawberry_."

"What?" Ichigo looked at the fruity carbonated drink, confused.

"Someone bought you a drink." Renji laughed, taking a sip of his own lime soda with a few cherries in it.

"Well, who?" Ichigo said turning in the direction of the bar.

"I dunno, the bar tender handed it to me, coulda been—Oi! Matsumoto!" Renji called after the busty woman as she spun off for the dance floor.

Ichigo was left alone at the landing. He frowned at the two and took a few sips of his drink. The music and bodies around him were so busy that he was slowly dragged in by the crowd.

Matsumoto had begun to dance with a particular guy who, for obvious reasons could not keep his hands off of her. Ichigo felt a strange protective urge, but figured that she could take care of herself. In fact, he knew that she could.

Renji was there as well. He was dancing on the other side of Matsumoto, but focusing on the man who was grinding up against her.

Ichigo couldn't help but notice the extra care that was taken in a crowd of friends. He smiled at them and continued with his drink until it was almost gone, and then set it aside on a tall table.

Once he let the current of the crowd place him dead center, the boy fell into a heavy rhythm with the music, the pulsing bodies around him helping out. Matsumoto and Renji found him, they'd managed to get the man off of Matsumoto for the most part.

"Hey." He called to her, she either didn't hear him or pretended not to. He grabbed Ichigo by the shoulder and leaned into his ear. "Tell your strawberry friend there that I'll be outside for a bit." He winked at him. Ichigo nodded and smiled to him. Fat chance.

The underaged boy was then almost knocked over as Matsumoto pushed up against him. He came face to face with the terrifying bust once more, although her hands on his hips made it harder to simply pull away from them.

As if to avoid knocking him over, Matsumoto turned away from him and towards Renji instead, but she took Ichigo's hands and placed them on her hips. This was just an underage crowd dancing to a hormonal waltz, and Ichigo's _out of town_ friends were really getting into it.

It wasn't simply them who ended up dancing like this, other individuals were dancing in close quarters, some wearing very little, either because of the immense heat that the crowd generated, or as some new mating ritual customary of this generation.

After only a few minutes of this, Ichigo didn't seem to notice the crowd's dancing style as much. He only noticed the beat of the bass and his heart in his chest. He noticed the lights flashing before him and let his head fall back to breath in some of the oxygen left above the crowd.

"Oi.." Ichigo heard Renji, and felt the red head as he caught the boy. "You ok?" He asked.

Ichigo simply stared up at him, it wasn't until he tried to pull away from Renji that he noticed how dizzy he was.

"Heyy, you two aren't together, are you?" He heard an obnoxiously high voice question the two of them. It was some girl who was eyeing Renji.

"Here, I have him." Matsumoto teased. Taking Ichigo by the arm and helping him stand on his own.

Once Renji was free of holding Ichigo, the girl pushed in between them, almost tackling Renji on the spot.

Matsumoto giggled at the poor red head and helped Ichigo up off the dance floor.

"I don't think there's any air left for us in there." She laughed.

"I agree." Ichigo felt his hand over his forehead, taking a deep fresh breath of air once they were closer to the hall way.

"You're totally flushed. Are you ok?" She asked him. Standing him against a wall. He nodded to her, not really saying that he was ok but trying to get a feel for his body. Ichigo didn't notice that he was still holding onto her.

"You were really getting into it back there." She teased, her hips dipping a little as she leaned into him a bit.

"hey…" he began, but stopped. That felt good. Ichigo noticed his pulse quicken and blushed at the reaction.

"Yeah?" She laughed when he lost his train of thought. "Come 'ere." She said softly over the music and found a storage closet* that was unlocked.

"Oi, wait…" Ichigo began, but he was cut short when the door closed and his lips were covered by Matsumoto's lips.

She pushed him into a desk and urged him to lean back a bit, running his hands over her sides. The boy stopped just below her chest, he couldn't force himself to move any closer than that. Matsumoto was abrasive enough to move his hands for him though. Ichigo had never felt a woman like this before. He felt his cheeks heat up and he pulled away from the kiss for a moment, looking at where his hands had been placed.

"Do you wanna stop?" She whispered in his ear.

He didn't answer. She let his hands go and kneeled down a bit, lifting his shirt and placing kisses on his stomach. It twitched under her touch, tensing and relaxing. "You're ticklish." She commented, smiling up at him, but there was still no response.

Ichigo went ahead and leaned back on his elbows, opening his legs. Matsumoto took that as a clue to continue. She undid the button on his fly and pulled the zipper down slowly. Ichigo moaned at that. He thought that maybe it was the lack of oxygen in the crowd, but in here he could tell he was more sensitive than usual.

Matsumoto wasted no time in finding Ichigo's cock. She pulled his boxers down enough to pull him free, giving him a complimenting look at his size. He wasn't even hard.

The fukataicho tried to fix that though. The soft organ felt good in her mouth, and it felt even better to Ichigo, although something seemed to pull at the edge of his mind. As Matsumoto's hand slipped up over the flat of his stomach, her other hand firmly holding his base, her mouth did what it could to get him hard.

"Something's…." he began, but then stopped again.

She looked up at him and frowned. "You want me to stop?" she asked once more. This time Ichigo nodded.

"It doesn't feel right, something's wrong." He rubbed his face and took in a deep breath.

"You're still flushed…" she noted, and then felt his forehead. "and you're kinda hot." She frowned even more.

Matsumoto did what she could to do up his pants. She put one arm under him and then helped him back out into the club. "The lights are too bright." He complained, but he couldn't stop looking at them.

"God, you sound drunk." She commented.

Renji almost ran right into them as they headed for the door. Matsumoto wanted to get Ichigo some fresh air. "Oi, he ok?" He asked her.

"I think he's drunk…" She told Renji.

"But, that's not possible, right? That drink had no alcohol in it."

Ichigo looked up at Renji and grabbed his shirt. "_For the strawberry_ right?" He asked the red head.

"What?"

"That drink you got me." Ichigo reminded him.

"Oh yeah. Do you think it was special?" Renji asked.

Ichigo turned to Matsumoto "That guy who was all over you called you a strawberry." He told her. "I bet that drink was for you!"

"That bastard." She growled, dumping Ichigo on Renji. "Where is he?"

"He said he'd be outside." Ichigo told her hesitantly.

She rushed passed them and through the swinging doors. As they swung back in, they saw the man lifted several feet in the air by her hand. As the doors swung back out, they saw him upside down on the pavement and a bouncer and Hitsugaya trying to hold her back.

Renji laughed at the scene, helping Ichigo to the doors and into the fresh air.

"Bastard! Thought you could get the better of me, huh?" She growled at the sniveling mess on the ground.

Ichigo leaned over to the bouncer and gave him a nudge. "This guy's drugging drink, he tried to give her one." He told him.

The bouncer looked furiously down at the guy and grabbed him by the collar. "Come on, we're gonna have a talk with some special buddies with badges." He told the man. He actually looked relieved that he was getting away from Matsumoto.

"The nerve of him." She growled. "We hadn't even been out for that long!" She looked upset.

"We need to get Ichigo back, I think he's feeling worse." Renji suggested.

"Right…" She sighed, heading in the direction of the shop. "So. What was it he put in the drink?" She asked the teenager.

"Probably a ruffie. It's a date rape drug, makes them easier to have sex with." He told her flat out. He was afraid she was going to rush back and kill the guy.

"And that's an underage club, right?" Hitsugaya asked, grabbing Matsumoto's arm to stop her.

"No, it just doesn't serve alcoholic drinks, but there are a lot of kids there."

"I bet a lot of sick assholes go there." Matsumoto said.

"But they have good security. So it's not too bad." Ichigo said again. His voice failed him a bit. It was really hitting him hard.

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Matsumoto and Hitsugaya had departed at Orihime's house and left Renji with Ichigo.

The two of them walked up to the shop front, stopping at the porch so that Renji's arm could rest. "Sorry…" Ichigo whispered. He looked so embarrassed.

"Oi, you're fine." Renji laughed at him softly, making sure he was steady.

The two of them looked towards the shop as a soft moan came through an open window. Renji made his way up the steps slowly, but Ichigo knew to mind his own business. He even tried to reach out and stop Renji.

Just inside, passed the kitchen and sitting on a sofa were Ulquiorra and Urahara. Urahara was sitting on the sofa with Ulquiorra in his lap, facing away from him. The hollow's kimono was wide open, hanging off of his shoulders and with the help of the shop keeper's knees, he was fluidly rocking up and down in the man's lap.

Renji had a clear view too. Urahara was buried to the hilt, he had one hand gripping Ulquiorra's hip bone while the other generously stroked over the hollow's length in time to their rhythm. The hand on his hip traced up over his chest at that point, flicking a finger over his nipple. This caught the hollow off guard a bit, and he leaned back a bit more, taking Urahara's hand in his to move it up to his neck. The shop keeper's fingers dared to trace over his hollow's hole.

Ichigo joined him by the window, giving him a nudge. "come on…" he said softly. He saw the move that Ulquiorra made, it must only work when he's unconscious, that ominous hole.

Renji looked at him incredulously. "You…. You're not bothered by this?" He inquired and ducked down from the window as they crept off.

"I guess not." Ichigo admitted. His blush was much darker now and he felt his groin stiffening. "God…" he sighed, bringing a hand to his chest. His heart felt like it would break through his ribs at this point.

"You ok?" Renji asked him.

"Yeah… that really got me." He shuddered.

Renji blushed. It wasn't as obvious to Ichigo as it was to him, the state the boy was in.

They found a window to the room that the two would be sharing from now on. Renji crawled through first, and then helped Ichigo through. He heard the boy whispering to himself, "what does it mean?"

"What does what mean?" He asked the delirious teen and sat him down on a mat.

"Matsumoto tried something, and it did nothing." Ichigo mumbled.

"What'd she do?" Renji sounded surprised.

"She tried to give me head." Ichigo said, not looking at him. He couldn't tell if Ichigo wasn't looking at him out of shame or if he just wasn't all there.

"So, by nothing you mean—"

"I didn't… you know…"

"You couldn't come?"

"I couldn't even get hard." He sounded so defeated.

"I think you're worrying about this too much."

"I'm hard right now…."

That caught the red head off guard. Without a second thought, he felt out Ichigo's groin, his hand pressing over the erection firmly.

Ichigo let out a loud moan, one that Renji quickly clapped his hand over. "Shh." He urged the boy as he clung to the red head.

"Why does it feel so good?" He said against Renji's hand. "I mean, what does it mean?"

"It means you're enjoying it." Renji told him.

"But.. when you do it or when Ulquiorra does it, or Yumichika…" Ichigo leaned into Renji's touch, one of his arms flopping lazily over the red head's shoulder for support.

Renji sat down against the wall next to him, and Ichigo stayed close by, the physical contact drawing him closer. "You liked it, right?" Renji said. "When they did it." The drug must've been strong. He didn't think Ichigo would have divulged all of that to him so easily.

Ichigo nodded, sitting up a bit as Renji pulled him into his lap. The boy straddled his way down a bit, sighing as he felt Renji's chest so close to him. The man was hot to the touch too, not as hot as he was, but the body warmth made him harder it seemed.

They both heard another moan from Ulquiorra and Ichigo bit his lip, gripping Renji's shirt. "That really gets you, huh." Renji joked softly, his hands tracing up over Ichigo's thighs. One stopped to tease the inside a bit, but the boy almost let another moan slip.

He pulled Ichigo in closer and made sure the boy's lips were good and sealed against his own before beginning to rub out the tension in his crotch.

Ichigo moaned again, taking a deep breath and moaning while his hands felt the muscles beneath Renji's shirt. "fuck…" he whispered against his lips.

Renji laughed and took to undoing Ichigo's pants. He pulled the boy free and was afraid he would wake the shop up once more. "Wow, you really are a bit gone, aren't you." He laughed, there was a little excess amount of pre on Ichigo's tip. Renji lifted it up to his mouth to taste it, watching as Ichigo's mouth fell open a bit more, then closing to bite his lip while Renji tasted him.

"Ya gotta be quiet, ok?" Renji whispered in his ear. At that Ichigo leaned into him.

"That…. Matsumoto did that too." He groaned softly.

"Did what?" Renji whispered back, taking to stroking the boy, enjoying the struggle Ichigo was putting up to be quiet.

"She whispered in my ear."

"Is it a sweet spot or something?" He laughed softly.

Ichigo nodded.

"So this is doing something to you?"

He nodded again.

"But when she did it, it didn't do anything?" Renji confirmed. Ichigo didn't respond that time. He just let his head fall back a bit.

Renji took that opportunity to nip at Ichigo's neck, kissing it in places, biting it lightly.

"harder…" Ichigo whispered.

Renji took the hint and bit down harder. The boy had to clap a hand over his mouth and the red head was surprised at how his cock twitched in response. His other hand undid Ichigo's shirt completely, sliding from his ribs around to his back andpulling his body closer

He could tell the substitute shinigami liked being close like this, but what he probably wanted was more skin on skin.

The red head struggled with his own fly, but he managed to pull himself free and took both cocks in hand, stroking them together. Ichigo gasped at this, looking down. He took a hand and held it over the sight in disbelief.

"You're…" he began, trembling fingers feeling Renji's length, feeling how hard it was with a light squeeze.

"Yeah…" he laughed, and turned the boy's head a little to access his neck once more. He had him panting soon after, rocking a little in Renji's lap.

This was beginning to drive the red head nuts. He needed a little more than this. "want me to ride you?" He whispered against Ichigo's ear. He expected the moan he got in response, but not the question.

"is it really that good?" Ichigo asked bashfully.

Renji laughed at that. "I like it."

"you… that's what you're used to?" the boy sounded intrigued. Renji figured that he liked talking about these things, especially while like this. Like the truth or dare questions that lead to making out and eventually sex for teens.

"I'm used to a lot of things." He replied.

"Were you… a prostitute, like Yumichika?" He asked curiously.

Renji stopped at that. "No." he laughed softly. "I'm just… used to it."

That came as a relief to the boy, if one more prostitute came after him he was gong to wonder if something was wrong with him. Maybe he should be more concerned that most of them were men.

"Doesn't it hurt?" He asked.

"Not if done the right way." Renji whispered into his ear. The boy slouched a little in his lap in response.

"Ya wanna try?" He asked. He didn't mean the whole shebang, but Ichigo misunderstood and his body stiffened again.

"Here, not like that." Renji quickly slid his hand back over Ichigo's rear, and under his loosened pants. For now, he just settled on rubbing the boy's crack, watching as the look of uncertainty seemed to melt quickly away. It felt good to Ichigo.

His spine arched outward a little, pressing up into the touch, and Renji took that as a hint to continue on. The boy stopped when he reached his anus, but Renji didn't do much there, he just rubbed against it for now, letting Ichigo get used to the feel of it.

Ichigo noticed that Renji had stopped stroking their cocks, and timidly tried to do so himself. He took Renji's cock in hand first, eager to feel another man in his hands, it made his head spin.

"Woah." Renji said, it actually made Ichigo's whole body spin. He positioned himself better so that Ichigo could lean his head against Renji's shoulder.

"I think this is better with you." Ichigo said softly.

"Huh?"

"With Ulquiorra, I'm too wrapped up in him being an enemy. And I don't think I know Yumichika as well as you." He boy admitted.

Renji didn't know if he should take that as a confession or not, he hoped not. He did like Ichigo's company, but this was more a favor for them both than an act of intimacy.

Ichigo's hand tightened around the both of their cocks when Renji pushed a little harder at his anus, he leaned back against it, kissing Renji's neck.

The red head was doing his best to keep control of himself. "Ya wanna try a bit more?" He asked ruggedly.

"sure… hey, I don't think I could… do it all right now, just so you know." Ichigo said quickly, hoping that Renji hadn't gotten his hopes up.

"I know. We'll figure something else out." He laughed softly. The red head removed his finger only to wet it a bit in his mouth. The digit returned shortly there after and Ichigo let a soft hiss out as it pressed into him. It was just enough to fit two knuckles in. After that Renji stopped, he settled for fingering the boy now, letting him get used to it.

He was surprised that Ichigo wasn't going mad, but perhaps that was the drug's fault.

"It hurts…" Ichigo told him stiffly.

"It will for a bit." He reassured the boy.

The two had begun to move once more, rocking against each other. Renji's cock was twitching and weeping now too. Ichigo had grown a little brave and licking a single drop of pre from his hand. Renji couldn't help but kiss the boy shortly after, to taste himself in Ichigo's mouth.

At that point Ichigo wined softly. "a little more." He said. And at that Renji's finger slid in more, he nestled the second digit against the puckered muscle, just to test the give, but it seemed loose enough now. He went ahead and slid his second finger in, capturing Ichigo's lips to quiet him.

After that he left his fingers still for a moment. Ichigo didn't seem to be in pain or anything, so he slowly began to thrust them in and out.

"Ah, it feels good." Ichigo told him, shuddering softly. Hopefully that meant he was close. He was still stroking both of their cocks.

Renji brushed over something that had the potential to wake the house as well. Just when Ichigo's spine went rigid, he sealed the boy's lips with his own to quiet the surprised gasp.

"What was that?" Ichigo shivered, looking alarmed.

"Your magic button."

"knock it off." The boy threatened.

"Your prostate." Renji laughed, brushing it again, but this time, clasping a hand over the boy's mouth.

Ichigo moaned against it, shortly. Renji gave it a small series of rubs and Ichigo's body almost toppled off and onto the floor.

"What's the point of that?"

"Dunno. How does it feel?" He asked the strawberry.

"good…" Ichigo admitted. That was all it took. Renji continued to harass the tight bundle of nerves and Ichigo managed to keep quiet for the most part.

He bucked against Renji's hand and bit the man's neck to muffle any escaped moans. It was getting out of hand for them both. "Hey, I'm…" Ichigo began, but replaced the rest of it with another moan.

"I know." Renji said softly. He continued to thrust his fingers in harder, hitting the bundle of nerves harder as well. After only a few seconds Ichigo's body went rigid. He grabbed both of their cocks and stroked them quickly, squeezing them together. That alone almost brought Renji off, but he would need more than that.

Ichigo slumped in his lap and Renji got the hint to remove his fingers. He looked at the drugged boy, not sure if he should feel bad or not. For the most part, he just felt the need to come.

"I'm sorry…" Ichigo apologized. "I can… I'll help…" He offered.

Renji decided that wasn't a bad idea. "Do you wanna taste?" He asked, smirking. Ichigo looked up at him, either blushing or still flushed. He slid down in Renji's lap enough to come face to face with the man's erection.

He let his tongue touch the tip. The salty taste of the pre wasn't too bad. He could taste his own cum, it was sweet, thank goodness. Ichigo let the length slip passed his lips, creating a strong vacuum around the head, just like Ulquiorra had.

"Woah…" Renji warned him, that was too much. "Just… suck it a little and I'll warn you when—"

"I wanna taste it." Ichigo told him.

Renji blinked dumbly at him. "ok…" The boy continued in that way, which was the right way. Renji was panting soon after and he brought a clean hand up to grip Ichigo's hair with. He tried not to do to much thrusting, and he tried to let the boy move of his own will, but eventually he was thrusting up into the hot mouth.

"oi, I'm close…" he warned the boy, in case he wanted to change his mind, but Ichigo kept at it.

After a few bobs of the strawberry's head, Renji bit his hand to keep quiet, he gripped the boy's wrist as a warning, and felt surging streams rush through his cock. Ichigo could feel it. It was this vibrating little twitch in the base of Renji's cock, ending in the back of his mouth. Good, he was sweet too. He was afraid he would gag, but something about it made it hot to him.

Once he'd swallowed what he could, he looked up at Renji.

"You… you swallowed it?" Renji said breathlessly.

Ichigo only sat up enough to kiss the man, letting him taste himself.

Renji moaned, pushing him back a bit. "Is that ok?" He made sure Ichigo wasn't upset or something.

"It was… hot…" he admitted, sitting up finally so that they sat cross legged next to each other. "Do you like doing that?" He asked the red head.

"Yeah, not so much the taste, but… it's this whole psychological thing, I feel used." He told the boy, laughing to himself.

"You like feeling used?" Ichigo sounded a little reluctant to believe Renji.

"Yeah, it makes being Byakuuya's fukataicho a bit easier."

"Could've… done without that…" Ichigo admitted, they both laughed.

"Think they're done?" Renji asked.

"We're done." Ulquiorra's voice sounded from the doorway.

Ichigo nearly leapt out the window, Renji only pulled a blanket over his crotch quickly.

"Don't worry, I only came in to get the blanket I've been using." He said, making sure it wasn't the one that Renji had just dirtied. "That was arousing, I almost grew hard." Ulquiorra teased them, or at least, that's what they thought he was doing.

"Almost?" Renji sounded a little insulted.

"Don't take it personally." Ichigo told him. "He could probably come without getting hard." He sounded cynical.

"That's physically impossible." Ulquiorra corrected him, but Ichigo waved it off.

"I was joking." He yawned, rolling over onto his back, he still felt a little odd, and so he tried to lay still for a bit.

"You look drunk again. You should have some water to hydrate yourself." Ulquiorra warned him as he left the bedroom.

"I know. W-wait, where are you sleeping?" Ichigo sat up quickly.

"With Urahara." Ulquiorra called back to them.

They should have known that.

"Ya know, that's a good idea." Renji told him. He got up and lost the pants, replaced them with the dirty blankets instead.

He left the room and returned with two glasses of water. Renji made sure that Ichigo downed the entire glass before letting him roll over to sleep. He straightened out his own tatami matt, and then fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning, Ichigo was far grumpier than usual. Renji made sure to keep clear of him, and as the boy served himself some coffee, Urahara came in with a bright smile on his faee.

"Sooo, Kurosaki-kun! Did Matsumoto and Abarai help you to answer any life challenging questions last night?"

"Why does everyone seem so interested in what I like?" Ichigo growled at the breakfast table.

Ulquiorra looked up from his cup of tea and said, very matter-factly, "It's based on what appeals to them. You're young, and new, and very attractive. I assume they simply want to see what their chances will be."

Ichigo thought about that for a moment, blushing furiously. "So…. I'm a piece of man meat that everyone wants a taste of?" He sounded even more frustrated.

"Precisely."

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Author's notes: Not much to say, but I wanted to point out one thing.

Darn those pesky storage closets! They're like breeding grounds! And they're so conveniently placed and unlocked and undisturbed. XD

Authors comments

I still can't get over the fact that I'm related to a drunk Macedonian and am Jewish… and dating a pure blood German. XD Alleluia! XD

Could you guys tell I'm not used to writing straight stuff? XD

I tried hard not to make this some emotional "Oh no, do I like guys or chicks?" for Ichigo, please don't think of it that way, it won't play a huge part in this, I guess I just find Ichigo hot that way. XD

Just curious, I have two ending possibilities. Would you guys prefer that they fight to the death once more? Or that they go their separate ways and accept each other as enemies? I'm not set on those two, if anyone has suggestions, that'll help too. I'm just toying with my options a bit.


	9. Unknown Void

Chapter IX

"No don't!" A girl screamed. The chain attached to her chest bounced around noisily as she tried to run away. A long extended limb quickly wrapped around her waist, pulling her back.

"You don't understand, I need you to look pretty for me." A sly voice whispered against her neck. "You'll be so beautiful!" It reassured her. "Just think, I'm so close to perfecting it, you might even be the one, you might stay in that beautiful form long after you've gone. Wouldn't you like that?" he asked her, sounding hungry.

"Nooo!" She cried loudly.

"Stop!" Ishida's voice sounded over her scream, and the arrancar looked up from the girl, his eyes widening.

"A Quincy…." He spoke softly. "You would look beautiful too…" It pondered the thought, toying with the girl in the long extended limb, tossing her around gently. "Perhaps there's some way I could join your two together… I haven't tried that yet, it would… Yes, it would be interesting to say the least."

"Not gonna happen." Ichigo landed right beside Ishida, his Zangetsu drawn in his right hand. "Who are you?" Ichigo demanded. It was the arrancar from the night before.

The figure seemed to sway with laughter. "My collection is going to be so beautiful this time!" he sounded thrilled. "And judging by your reiatsu, I might grow strong enough to make it last! I'm so close!"

"What does that mean?" Ishida asked him, lowering his Quincy bow.

"Hoho, there's no point in telling you when I can simply show you." A second extended limb surged out after Ishida, but his arrow cut it off. "Ow, that wasn't very nice." The arrancar pouted, another limb replacing it.

"They can grow back." Ishida noted.

"Yeah, I caught that." Ichigo sounded irritated, but they both shut up as several more limbs sprung out towards them.

"Watch out Kurosaki!" Ishida threw himself at the shinigami, both of them landing just out of reach of three limbs. "You're still—"

"I know!" Ichigo growled.

"Is it the drug still?"

"Who the hell told you?" Ichigo leapt up just in time to miss another limb.

"Renji."

"That bastard." He growled.

"Awww, you're both far too serious, I need to make sure my methods don't grow stale, so if you'll excuse me." The arrancer raised his hand up over the girl, peering down at her with hungry eyes. "I'm going to make her everlasting!"

"Santen Kesshun!" Orihime's shield managed to separate the girl from the arrancar. It took her a moment to recover, but she managed to scramble away from him, and found Orihime holding her hands out to keep up the barrier.

"Thank you." The girl whimpered as she crawled over to hide behind Orihime.

Ichigo saw her and began to rush over, but just at that point he heard the Arrancar gasp loudly. "Oh…. You… your beauty…" he began.

"I don't think so." Ichigo growled at him, sending a rippling Getsuga Tenshou towards him. The thing evaded it easily for the most part, only suffering a few scratches.

"No no, I must. You look so…" He took a deep breath, drawing closer to Orihime. "It's just so—"

"No." The two of them turned to see Ulquiorra land just in front of Orihime. The girl that they were defending saw him and screamed, worried that the arrancar's reinforcements had shown up.

"You'll leave her." He warned the new hollow.

"Oh?" It responded to him. The thing was still for a long time, for a moment it pondered the possibility that this hollow was protecting them, but then it fell back a bit, his eyes widening. "You're…" He began, but stopped.

Ichigo jumped as the thing's limbs rushed out, more than just a few, they all rushed towards Orihime, Ulquiorra and the spirit. "I must have you." He droned, his voice different now, desperate. "Ohhh, I must have you again." It groaned, the arms winding to reach Ulquiorra as he took a hold of Orihime, leaping just out of reach. A few well-placed Ceros took care of most of the limbs, although they didn't land quite on target, the power of each seemed to fluctuate greatly.

The arrancar growled furiously. "Please!" It cried. "I made you so beautiful." Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou acted to distract the thing.

Ulquiorra rushed off quickly. Using sonido, he managed to lose the hollow and hide himself and Orihime on the other side of a building in an alleyway.

"Th-thank you." Orihime shivered, leaning up against the wall. She looked sideways at Ulquiorra. He himself seemed out of breath, and in fact, his eyes were widened, almost fear stricken it looked.

"Um.." She spoke softly, reaching out to him. Her wrist cracked loudly as he hit her hand away out of impulse. The hollow turned to see what he'd done though. She was cradling her wrist, but still looked at him with those caring eyes.

"I'm sorry. Does it hurt." He asked, ignoring the state he was in himself.

"It's fine." She laughed softly, she didn't make the mistake of approaching him again, she only shook her head and nodded to him. "Are… Are you ok?" She asked. She'd been around him enough to know that the expression he had a moment ago was not customary of the espada.

"I'm fine." He told her, taking a deep breath and assuming his stoic expression once more. "Do you walk home alone?" He asked her.

"What?" That was a little unexpected. "Usually, but Matsumoto and Hitsugaya are staying with me, so usually, at least, Rangiku-san walks home with me now."

"That's not enough." He told her. The espada turned from her to look around the corner.

"I don't understand." She told him, but he didn't answer her. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"He doesn't know where we are, I'll take you home." He told her, placing a surprisingly gentle hand on her back and leading her out of the alleyway and into the evening sun.

"Um, why are you—"

"And tomorrow, I'll escort you home from school." He told her, taking his place beside her.

Orihime kept an eye on him, then laughed softly, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Did that amuse you?" He asked her, wondering if he'd said something wrong.

"It did. It's just… you're acting like a parent." She told him, smiling warmly. The hollow's eyes softened a little when he saw that smile of her's. "I didn't have any parents for the most part." She told him, turning her smile towards him.

"Why do you do that?" He asked her curiously.

"Do what?" she asked confused.

"You were still smiling when you said that." He pointed out.

"Oh… I… I think I'm just used to it. There's no sense in being upset over it, right?" She asked him. Ulquiorra thought about it. "I mean, I can be happy about the time I had with them, and my brother, but they wouldn't want me to waste any time over being upset that they're gone."

The more he thought about it, the more he realized the small similarity they both shared. The only different was that his prevalent emotion of choice was indifference, rather than bitter sweet serenity.

"You would have made a terrible hollow." He told her, looking straight ahead again as they walked.

That time she laughed again, it was a real one, not one to cover up any pain. "Really?" She said, trying to calm herself down.

"You would have left a complete life behind, nothing to lose yourself in."

"Like… revenge or something?" she asked him timidly.

The hollow slowed some. "I see the boy has divulged you in what little he's learned of me thus far." Ulquiorra sighed.

"It's interesting, it makes you seem more human I guess."

"Human?" He pondered that for a moment, catching up to her.

"Do you like the thought of being human?" She asked him seriously. "It's just, that you seem to think about it a lot."

"I think that…" he began, and continued on down another smaller alley towards the girl's house. "Even while I was hollow I had forgotten what it felt like."

"To be human?"

Ulquiorra nodded. "But it's not something that pains me, it's just something that is. So don't concern yourself with that." He reassured her as they both came to a stop a short distance from her house.

"I keep thinking about it…" Orihime looked back towards where they'd come from.

Ulquiorra tilted his head to one side, encouraging her silently to continue.

"You and Kurosaki… you're a lot alike in some ways." She smiled.

"How so?"

She hadn't planned on voicing them, but she'd couldn't just say that and then not say anything else. "Well… uh, you both seem determined, and you both only seem to fight people who interest you. To an extent I think." That wasn't the biggest similarity to her though.

"Well…" She blushed. "You both lost your mother's. Actually, they were both taken away, weren't they…"

Ulquiorra looked surprised that she knew that, but understood.

"And you both seemed to continue on in life, instead of dwelling on it. Neither of you let it stop you from doing great things." She smiled at him.

Just as they did, Ichigo and Ishida showed up, surprised to see them both together.

"Ah! Orihime-chan!" Matsumoto rushed out to her without her gigai, her zanpaktou drawn. "Are you ok?" She asked. Orihime only nodded, smiling at her.

"You just took off, again." Ichigo said to Ulquiorra, quietly, while the others surrounded Orihime.

"I assume you missed where the arrancar seemed interested in the girl." Ulquiorra sounded reluctant to realize any fault in what he'd done.

"My point is, you ditched us, just like you did last week." Ichigo growled at him.

"Perhaps this isn't the best place to discuss this." Ulquiorra suggested to him, letting Ichigo notice the concerned look on Orihime's face.

"Ah, Inoue, sorry. Are you?" He asked. She smiled at him warmly, nodding. "What… happened to your hand?" He asked her, reaching out for it but not touching it, afraid that it might be sore.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm fine Kuro—"

"I struck her." Ulquiorra said plainly, leaning in to examine it. "You'll remember to ice it." He told her, and she nodded to him.

"You what?" Ichigo turned on him, taking a hold of the espada's collar, that didn't do anything, Ulquiorra simply made eye contact with Ichigo and then remained quiet, his expression unfaltering.

"No! Kurosaki-kun it's fine. It was my fault anyway." Orihime pulled him away from Ulquiorra. She pushed them all I the direction of the shop while Matsumoto headed inside, waiting for Orihime.

"Inoue…" Ichigo began, but she waved her hand at him.

"Oh, Uh, Ulquiorra." She said timidly, having never really called him by that name. "I don't have school tomorrow, so… the day after tomorrow?" She smiled at him. He nodded to her, and then followed after Ichigo and Ishida.

"What's that mean?" Ichigo asked him sternly.

"What does what mean?" The hollow asked him.

"School!" The boy snapped at him. "What did she mean by that? You two have a date or something?"

"Is would be inappropriate if that were the case." Ulquiorra pointed out to Ichigo.

"How so?" Ishida inquired.

"I didn't tell him." Ichigo informed the hollow.

"Oh? You've been telling others though, right?" Ulquiorra questioned the boy.

"No, I've been writing it down, I'm using it for an assignment." He let Ulquiorra in on his master plan.

"I see."

"I don't, I'm still lost." Ishida reminded them. Ulquiorra waved a hand dismissively to let Ichigo know he was fine with it.

"Orihime looks exactly like his mom." The strawberry explained.

"Ohhh. That would be somewhat ironic. A little Oedipus Rex, huh." Ishida joked, which flew straight over Ichigo's head.

"Precisely why I'd like to avoid that." Ulquiorra agreed.

"That still doesn't answer what ever you two were talking about." Ichigo reminded him.

"I'm not confident in that woman and her Taicho's ability to protect her. The arrancar could attack her while she walks home." He looked down at the ground to ponder this some more.

"He could attack while she's at school too." Ishida pointed out.

"I realized that…" Ulquiorra slowed down some.

"Wait…" Ichigo tried to jump in.

"There's no way to be sure that he won't try that." Ishida added.

"I know." The hollow sounded concerned.

"You guys—" Ichigo panicked.

"We're there all day, but..." Ishida hinted.

"I suppose it can't be helped." Uqluiorra sighed.

"No, No! Wait!" Ichigo stopped them both.

Ulquiorra only stopped to face Ishida, the Quincy looking at him in agreeance. "You'll have to enroll in high school." The Quincy confirmed.

"No!" Ichigo nearly yelled. "I don't want you in the same class room as me!"

"Kurosaki, this isn't the time to stake out your territory. Inoue-san is in danger, we need all the help we can get, and you had to die and turn into some monster jut to beat him. He might just be perfect for the job." Ishida tried to defend Ulquiorra.

"You're alright with this? He's still technically an enemy." Ichigo pointed out.

"Do I really threaten you that much?" Ulquiorra looked.

"I'm just… not comfortable with you… in the same room as me for longer than necessary." Ichigo tried to hint to Ulquiorra.

"Is this about what Renji mentioned earlier?" Ishida asked

"What'd he say?" Ichigo looked devastated.

"Well, I don't think I need to tell you… It's not a huge deal, Kurosaki." Ishida told him.

The strawberry was redder than one, and more than a little pissed.

"I was wondering if it was simply the boy or if your society is really so different." Ulquiorra said.

"It is in some places, but I think here it's a little more accepted." Ishida sighed. "In some places, young boys are hung for it."

Ulquiorra wrung his hand around his own neck absentmindedly. "I see."

"Hey, are you really going to be there on Monday?" Ichigo asked Ulquiorra, his voice indicating that he'd already given up the fight.

"I am, but we need to talk before then." He warned the boy, just as they waved Ishida off as he turned down his street.

Ichigo nodded to the hollow, just wanting to get to bed. "Is it gonna be awkward?" He asked him.

"If you make it so, yes."

"What are we talking about." Ichigo asked.

"You're interest in my past. It's unhealthy, I want you to stop." Ulquiorra told him. He was vague, but straight to the point. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to persuade Ichigo.

The boy nodded at him, but bit his lip. That wouldn't work. "Can you tell me how it ended?" He asked, maybe he could get an idea and just alter the story a bit.

"No." Ulquiorra told him flatly.

He didn't leave the boy with much of a choice.

The rest of the commute back was quiet.

Ichigo found the room he was sharing with Renji and crawled back into his body. It was still dirty from the day, and so he needed to bathe.

As the boy entered the bathroom, he walked in on Ulquiorra leaning over the sink, a fair amount of deep red liquid was being washed down the drain. The hollow had his hand over his mouth, and the other held a tissue up over the hollow's hole in his neck.

"Ah! What happened?" Ichigo gasped, rushing in to sit the espada down, but Ulquiorra pushed him back, wiping the little blood that stained his lips.

"It's nothing." He scolded the boy.

"Yeah right!" Ichigo growled trying to stop him, but Ulquiorra landed a sound punch against the boy's diaphragm, sending him down gasping for air.

Ulquiorra moved over him, glaring down at him, his eyes darker than when he wanted Ichigo dead less than a month ago. "You won't concern yourself with this, anymore." He meant when Ichigo looked into his past, but the boy didn't understand that. "And this is why I'll be escorting Orihime home from school from now on." He told him.

"What?" Ichigo was still trying to get air back into his lungs.

"That hollow is different, and it has its sights on her." He warned Ichigo.

"How is he different?"

"We don't know." Urahara's voice had interrupted them, and a good thing it seemed.

He stood at the other end of the hall with Rukia. "Ichigo, this one is different some how, and he seems to have affected Ulquiorra in some way, but we don't know why."

Ichigo looked up at Ulquiorra as he slumped a little against the wall. The hollow was looking straight over him and at Urahara instead.

"Well…. Can I walk her home too?" He asked Ulquiorra.

"Actually, it would be preferable if there were a large number of us, I would appreciate it." He told him, heading back into the bathroom to check the hollow's hole in his neck.

"Uh… why is it doing that?" He asked.

"I don't know, it's never happened before."

"Does it hurt?"

"No, I can't feel a thing." He clarified, making sure that the bleeding had stopped. "I'm going to rest though." He sighed. "Would you prefer it I rest somewhere else?" He asked the shop keeper.

"No, you're fine, I'll have Ururu come bandage you up, in case it happens again." He told the hollow.

Ulquiorra showed his gratitude with a shallow bow and then left them all and went into Urahara's room.

Rukia gave the shopkeeper a look at that, but didn't press it any further.

"Uh, I'm gonna shower." Ichigo told them both, and they nodded, leaving him to it, he needed to go over a lot of this.

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

Author's comments:

I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, the story isn't going to change at all, but when I reread what I have posted, I'll admit that I was a little mortified. I'm going to rewrite a lot of it. It just sounds awful to me. XD But what happens in every chapter should be mostly the same. A lot of the dialogue will be reworked. _

I told my friend in an excited devious manner "I think Ulquiorra's gonna enroll in high school 8D" and she turned and gave me this weird look, then turned back to her own fanfic in progress. Then I said, really quietly. "He might sparkle." She turned on me with the cruelest look of indignation in her eyes. XD I was joking, I just wanted to see her reaction. I wouldn't do that to poor Ulquiorra.

Can any of you guess what I might be hinting at with the new Arrancar? It's a mythological thing, and it is related to Alexander the Great. w

I'm beginning to wonder if I should make it a goal to have Ichigo sleep with every male character. XD I won't I won't… but do you guys want some Ichigo and Ishida action? How about you toss in some characters you all want to see, and I'll see if I can work it into the story. XD I'm gonna go by plot and character though, so if I can't (or don't want) to make it work, then it won't happen. But it's worth a shot right? :D

I'm posting another chapter right after this so that you all have some tasty man lovin'. I didn't just want to give you a boring sexless chapter. XD I also didn't want to make this one super long like the last one. I'll make sure to start it off with something hot.


	10. The Point of No Return

Chapter X

"Y-you're not loud enough…" Ichigo complained.

Ulquiorra chuckled uncharacteristically. "You wish it that I should be louder?" He gasped softly, sitting up a bit.

"I just…" the boy began. He was standing next to the doorframe to Urahara's room. He had planned on walking through it, but instead he turned from view of the room and stood just outside, holding his arms close to himself, bowing his head to keep the blush hidden. "I don't know when you're…" _Having sex…_

"Uh, Kurosaki-kun, would you mind waiting?" Urahara's voice sounded a tad exhausted, but he could tell the shopkeeper was trying to speak normally.

"It's your shipment." He began.

"Just leave it for now, take a break."

The boy left the room, irritated. Now he needed the chore Urahara had given him to distract himself. What was he going to do with himself without it? Well for starters, he could take care of the hard on growing between his thighs.

The teen escaped to his shared room and sat down in a corner. Now he could still hear them, which he actually welcomed. He listened as the creaking of the futon sped up, Ulquiorra was beginning to pant softly, letting soft moans slip now and then.

Heavy fabric hit the floorboards, they were probably mostly naked now. Ulquiorra was bent far over when Ichigo had walked in on them.

Admittedly, he felt jealous of the shopkeeper, or he thought he did, he couldn't be sure.

Ichigo heard a loud gasp, and the creaking changed. He didn't know what that meant, but he imagined Urahara standing the hollow up more, maybe hitting him in a more tender area, deeper. The boy slid his hand down between his legs, and then back up. The other hand joined in and they worked to undo his fly, and then he was free to wrap tightly around the erection.

It was Ulquiorra, he told himself. He was leaning forward and whispering something in his ear. No, maybe it was Urahara. The older man breathed over Ichigo's neck, a musk tobacco and tea smell covering him.

Ichigo's cock was hard, the tip glistened. He stopped stroking it momentarily to watch it jump as Ulquiorra warned Urahara in the other room. He knew it was for show, the hollow could hold out forever. That's what Ichigo assumed. Experimentally, he took one hand and slid it underneath himself, his middle finger seeking out and playing with his anus. It was still a new thing to him, but Renji hadn't made it feel half bad.

"Having fun there?" He heard.

"Ah! Renji." Ichigo panicked, rushing to pull his pants up.

"I've seen you like that already, remember?" He reminded the boy.

"Oh, yeah, I know… I just…" He didn't know how to finish that.

"Not used to it?" Renji teased.

"No." He pouted.

"Can I?" Renji offered, or perhaps requested.

"Uh, yeah.." Ichigo smirked.

He was expecting head but the red head slumped right down and began kissing him. He got the idea that Renji liked kissing. At least his hands were skilled. Ichigo was moaning into the kiss, shivering at the strong grasp Renji had of him.

"more…" he moaned against the other's lips.

They both heard Ulquiorra in the other room and paused.

"This is like… some weird… I dunno." Renji laughed.

"I know, I won't complain though." And with that Ichigo sat up a bit, pushing Renji over on his back. "You said you wanted to help, right?" he was a bit out of breath, and straddled the shinigami so that he could grind into his tented fly.

"Hey, I said _can I_ not _oh please, allow me to help you out there_ right?"" Renji teased.

"Means nothing to me." Ichigo groaned, almost painfully pinning his balls between their bodies. "Undo your pants." He told the red head.

"No, undo them for me." Renji shot back.

The boy growled at him, but he didn't want to stall this any longer. He went to work and pulled his and Renji's pants off. He was relieved when he felt their bare skin grinding against each other. It was so good.

The two tried to be quiet enough to hear Ulquiorra, Urahara was becoming more vocal too, they were close. They both tried to move quickly, hoping to finish at the same time. Ichigo was panting finally and Renji pulled him close enough to ravage the boy's neck. It was a little too much, Ichigo was wining at the harsh bites, but he didn't stop Renji, eventually he grew used to them and began to moan again.

Ulquiorra's voice cried out suddenly, stopped by a hand clapping over his mouth.

"I know that move." Renji joked, he didn't really, but Urahara had plenty of tricks up his sleeve in the bedroom, so he could only imagine.

"You.. really?" Ichigo asked.

"He's curved." It was a little too much for Ichigo, but he moaned against Renji's ear. "So he can really get in there and hit you in the right spot."

Ichigo shut his eyes tightly. He wasn't disgusted, but he was, embarrassed? It made him harder though, so he did at least find it arousing.

Urahara let a groan slip, followed by Ulquiorra gasping loudly several times, and the creaking stopped shortly thereafter.

"God…" Ichigo panted, that alone helped him come. He spilled over Renji's stomach, and shortly after, with his help, Renji came over his own stomach as well, his hands gripping tightly at Ichigo's arms, his hips thrusting up against him.

"Ha, shit…" he gasped, his body going limp, just as Ichigo's.

"Ulquiorra's gonna complain about it smelling in here." Ichigo panted.

"Let him, who the hell cares." Renji laughed. "We'll have him join us."

"No, he likes to tease me and it's… just kind of awkward." Ichigo growled, sitting up in Renji's lap.

"Is it awkward? Or does he get under your skin in just the right way that it makes you wanna—"

"Are you trying to be discrete?" Ulquiorra asked them both. He was missing his kimono and now just had a sheet wrapped up around his shoulders.

"No, I get it you can hear us." Ichigo snapped at him. "You two weren't quiet either!" He pointed out stubbornly.

"We weren't trying to be particularly quiet."

"What happens if Ururu and Jinta hear you guys?" Renji asked him cautiously.

"He hasn't brought that up yet. Although I would argue that they too are not human, and in fact, older than you, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Still seems kinda weird." He pointed out. Renji nodded in agreement to him.

"Hey," Ichigo sat up and pulled himself away from Renji, pulling his shirt down over his crotch. "Has your uh… has it bled at all today?" He asked the hollow.

"No." Ulquiorra reached his hand up to check, sliding his fingers inside. Ichigo wished he could have done that, although he's proven that it only works when the hollow is unconscious. "I still don't understand why it happened in the first place." He looked curiously at his clean fingertips.

"But it didn't hurt?" Ichigo sounded concerned.

The hollow was clearly amused by that. "Are you so worried about my well being?" He teased.

"Gah! Ya see?" He turned to Renji. "Why can't you be normal?" He growled at Ulquiorra. "Why do you keep trying to piss me off?"

"Because it is an easy thing to do, and your reactions are interesting."

Renji laughed at that, he agreed, Ichigo was easy to piss off. The strawberry only blushed.

"Like when we had sex last week." Ulquiorra pointed out. The boy's face was beet red and Renji turned on him.

"You two had sex?" He sounded shocked.

"I thought Yumichika told you!"

"He said you didn't tell him!"

"I… oh… Damnit!" Ichigo cursed to himself.

"You should have denied it." Ulquiorra said over his shoulder, leaving. Now the red head knew for sure, and it was entirely Ichigo's reckless fault.

"God, he pisses me off." Ichigo growled.

A soft, monotone "I can still hear you." Came from the hallway.

"I know" Ichigo yelled at him.

Renji laughed at them both. At that Ichigo launched himself at Renji, gaining a fist full of red hair while Renji's hand tried repeatedly punching at Ichigo's jaw.

"What are you two…." Rukia sat on the window sill, watching the fight, but noticing almost straight away that both of them had their pants undone. "Huh?" she giggled.

Renji blushed and easily pushed Ichigo off of himself. "You said you would be a while." He yelled accusingly.

"I was a while, I guess I wasn't long enough." She teased them both.

Ichigo simply groaned and rushed out of the room and into the bathroom.

When he emerged later, Renji was some how clean, and he and Rukia were going over some readings that Mayuri had sent them. They looked utterly lost still.

Urahara and Ulquiorra were standing over a new gigai he'd made for the hollow. It was to be his normal gigai, it didn't have any weird markings on its face or anything, it was possibly even tanner than Ulquiorra.

"I'm still rather new at creating gigai for hollows. Would you mind testing it out now?" He asked the espada.

Ulquiorra nodded silently. He seemed lost in how normal it looked. Ichigo was positive that Ulquiorra had some aspiration to be human again, no matter how uninteresting they all seemed to him.

Ichigo wandered passed them and into the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water and turning around just in time to see the hollow falling backwards into the gigai. After a moment, the gigai's eyes opened. He sat up stiffly and lifted his hand in the air to examine it.

"Will I be able to fight in this?" Ulquiorra asked him.

"You could, but since we haven't really tested it properly, I'd rather you step out of it to fight." Ulquiorra helped the hollow stand and then began examining his body to make sure it felt right.

Ichigo noticed Ulquiorra's face. It was smoother. For one thing, the tear streaks were gone, the rings around his eyes were gone, his eyebrows were thinner, and of course the hollow's hole was gone.

"Does something interest you?" Ulquiorra asked him.

The teen pouted and averted his gaze.

"If you like this one better, I might just trash the first one I made for you." Urahara noted to himself. "Does it feel ok?" He asked Ulquiorra.

"Actually." The hollow began. He slumped against Urahara and his eyes closed for a moment.

"Ah, that's a no." Urahara held onto him, Renji and Ichigo both rushed over to take him from the shopkeeper as he readied a mod-soul capsule.

Ichigo noticed that Ulquiorra's eyes weren't focused, he seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness.

"O-oi… what's happening?" He asked Urahara.

"I didn't sync his reiatsu with the gigai correctly. It's unstable now that his mask is broken, so it's hard to get a good reading.

"Why can't you just change the first one you made for him?" He asked the old man.

"Actually, that one does the same thing, I was researching it this time around. Since I've tweaked the other one so much and nothing was working, I thought I should just start from scratch." Urahara kneeled down to push the small capsule passed Uqluiorra's lips. This caused Ulquiorra's real self to fall towards the floor, caught by Ichigo while Renji lifted the gigai up, sitting it in a chair.

He was clearly exhausted, the thing had sucked him dry it seemed.

"Take him in to rest, I'm going to reconfigure this." Urahara told him.

"Ooooh, what's wrong with him?" They all looked up as a more normal looking Ulquiorra stared at the scene. It was a good thing the mod-soul's voice didn't match Ulquiorra's, it would have floored them all. The somewhat brighter more curious look on his face though stunned them.

Ulquiorra woke up enough to see a pair of brilliant green eyes staring at him, his own eyes. "What's this?" He asked.

"Ah! He can talk at least!" The thing said excitedly. "He probably hasn't been eating properly, I mean look at him!"

"Well… he only eats souls really, I think." Ichigo told the other Ulquiorra.

"Souls? Why… why would he eat souls?" It took a while, but the mod-soul finally noticed the hole in Ulquiorra's neck. "Ah! A Hollow?" It reeled back and away from Ulquiorra, crouching up on the table top in a way that contradicted Ulquiorra's perfect posture.

"What… is it?" Ulquiorra asked irritably, overwhelmed by the pitch and energy of the mod-soul's voice.

"What is he doing here? Is he a prisoner?"

"No, and you're his mod-soul, once we get his gigai fixed." Urahara told the thing.

"What? No! I'm not modding for a hollow! What is this?" It roared at the shopkeeper.

Urahara uncorked a small soul candy container, which seemed to quiet the thing. "He's on our side, and we're not feeding him souls, he's managed to survive thus far on hollows." The shopkeeper sounded pleased with this, smiling at him.

"That makes me sound like a domestic house pet." Ulquiorra pointed out, sitting up a bit more.

"Yeah, got a problem?" The mod-soul teased him.

"This one, does not interest me. It's trash." Ulquiorra sighed, standing slowly. He stumbled on his way to the door and managed to make it down the hall way and into Urahara's bed.

"So we still need to fix this thing by tomorrow, right?" Ichigo clarified, poking the gigai body.

"Hey, watch it!" The mod-soul spun around and glared down at Ichigo. "This is a pretty rotten thing you've stuck me with." It growled at him.

"Me? I didn't pick you, he did!" He pointed at Urahara.

"And may I point out that it was random, we didn't know who they would send." He reminded the thing.

The Ulquiorra look-a-like pouted and slouched down into a chair.

_He reminds me of Kon… great._ Ichigo thought. He stood and looked back to them all, making sure they had all the help they needed.

He wasn't too concerned. Ichigo made his way back to Urahara's room, finding an already passed out Ulquiorra. It looked like he hadn't even made it onto the bed completely. "Jeez." Ichigo sighed, stooping down to fix that.

He sat next to Ulquiorra, remembering his warning, The boy had taken it the wrong way. _ How is it unhealthy? I'm not obsessing over it or anything._ He thought. He listened, made sure that Ulquiorra was really out, and then leaned forward a bit.

The journey into that void was, admittedly, something he missed.

The scene that the void opened up to was bright. It was the inside of a well lit building, with sun filtering in, and young boys rushing back and forth while older ones sat and studied scrolls of papyrus.

One boy tripped right in front of Ichigo, dropping a small wooden tablet. "Oh no!" He cried. He picked it up and saw his notes that were carved into wax had been dented, and were now illegible. The boy pouted and tried not to cry.

"Give it here." Ichigo heard. The boy and him both turned to see Ulquiorra sitting with his legs crossed and tucked under his left hip by a column. The boy walked over and gave the wooden tablet to him along with a small pick he was using to carve in the wax. "You don't remember what you wrote?" He asked the boy, who shook his head.

Ulquiorra squinted at the boy's writing, biting his lip while he tried to make out what had been there. "You were writing about Aeneas, right?" He asked, and the boy nodded. "Alright. And you have the word _Romans_ in there… So… the Trojan hero gave rise to the Romans… This is what I would say." He looked at the boy. "Does that sound right to you?"

"… I think so." The boy said bashfully.

"Ok then, you're fine." Ulquiorra smiled softly at him and handed the tablet back, having carved the phrase into one of the dented lines. "Treat it with care." He warned the boy, who only smiled with him and rushed off again.

The hollow returned to the scrolls he had in front of him, pulling his shawl tighter around his shoulders as a breeze came through the columns he was seated before. A wrinkled hand was placed on his shoulder and he turned to see an aged face.

"That was kind of you." The man told him.

Ulquiorra smiled at him, moving over so that the man could sit down on the step he was on, which took some effort on the old man's part. "He would have been beaten, it would be a waste of his time." Ulquiorra pointed out.

"I see, so what is it you're studying?" the man asked.

"Right now, I'm actually looking over your work." Ulquiorra handed the piece of papyrus to him.

"Ohh, the *study of life, it's interesting, is it not?" He smiled at the hollow, rereading his own work. "This has gotten a lot of criticism. *Plato for one never appreciated my interests. But I think, this is something that will really take off soon." He sounded so excited about.

"It's something new. New things are criticized, and eventually recognized for their greatness. Your teacher would have come to appreciate it." Ulquiorra agreed.

"Yes, something new. I seek out new things, but I worry about losing the old things, like him." The man sighed.

"Those will never leave us." Ulquiorra reassured him.

"Like, Aeneas?"

The hollow smiled.

"Your father is Roman, is he not?"

Ulquiorra nodded to him. "But my mother was Greek." He smiled.

"That's right." He smiled at the hollow. "The blood of Aeneas." He joked. "The *ichor of Aphrodite herself." He spoke softly.

Ulquiorra closed his eyes softly, "I see." He chuckled.

"Did I go to far?"

"No, It's not the first time my looks have been compared to that of a Goddess." That sounded conceited of him, but he didn't mind obviously. "I'm flattered."

"I hope so, but also remember that you're much more than that." He warned the hollow. "Now, this school is about to…"

"I know, I should leave. Forgive me." Ulquiorra stood. "Unless, you wish it that I stay…" He said softly. Normally, he would offer up his body in exchange for knowledge, and education, but this man knew better. The hollow sat up a bit, placing his hands on the old man's shoulder, pulling up his foreign robe so that he could straddle the man's lap intimately.

"No no, please my boy, I'm much too old for you." The man smiled at him, pushing him away gently.

"Since when has age been an issue in this world." The rejected Ulquiorra readjusted his kimono, embarrassed if possible.

"Since I dreamed of having a son your age, who will become a great man." He laughed warmly. "just… be careful, please." He said as he handed the papyrus sheets to Ulquiorra, giving them to him to keep it seemed. They were on *botany it looked like. "Don't walk blind with this power of yours, I fear you may fall. *Satraps are not to be taken lightly."

"You…" Ulquiorra looked surprised, for once, he genuinely looked surprised. "You know of—"

"Oh, of what?" The man laughed, waving for him to leave. "I'm just the silly old man who ignores the giant universe looming over our heads. I don't know anything." He joked, giving Ulquiorra a friendly pat on the back before he left.

Ulquiorra stared after him. He looked worried. He rolled the papyrus up and stuffed them into a pouch that hung from his waist. The morning was slowly turning into noon and he took off to get a head start in the market place.

Ichigo wondered what the significance of this was. It wasn't until Ulquiorra had made it to the market place that he began to understand. Ichigo couldn't read Greek, but he somehow understood what the papyrus had on it. It was a study of poisonous plants, and their affects.

The hollow examined several fresh grown flowers decorating the many stalls along the road.

He was focused in what it was he was searching for. Ulquiorra's face softened when he found a grouping of purple flowers, caressing their stems gently with his hand.. "Ah, devils helmet, I see we have a member of *Hekate here causing trouble." A joyous voice sounded beside him.

The espada went pale when he turned to see its source. A tall man with sunken eyes and a long rounded nose stood before him. This man had two guards with him, a deep purple chiton with white fringe along the bottom. A heavy metal chest piece covered his chiton. He was a military man.

Ulquiorra recovered quickly and smiled at the man, his body slumping into a more seductive pose. Was this him? Ichigo wondered, or the memory seemed to wonder for him. "Lysimachos?" Ulquiorra inquired, and the man nodded to him formally.

"What business brings you here?" He asked the hetaera.

"It's not far from where I usually do business." He laughed softly. "Although, hopefully more business." Ulquiorra joked, looking around. "Athens is far from Thrace though, is it not?" Ulquiorra asked him.

"Oh, I get to travel when ever I want, so why not?" He laughed softly.

"Now, I have to ask, what is this that you're wearing?" He asked Ulquiorra.

The hollow smiled and stepped back to show off his new garment. "It's called a kimono, it's foreign, from the east."

"I see, you're one of those people." Lysimachos drawled.

"And this is a bad thing, I take it?"

"No, no." the war commander laughed. "I'm teasing you, they just seem to be so popular, with foreign trade picking up now. There's a lot coming through the port in the *Hospitable Sea and the Aegean.

"There is. Isn't it beneficial for us?" He asked the man.

"It is, I'm just worried about being lost as far as culture and tradition goes."

This time Ulquiorra let a laugh slip. "We're Greek, we're noisy. I doubt we'd lose it if we were blind." He joked and the man laughed, nodding in agreement.

"Well, how shall we part ways?" He asked Ulquiorra. "May I expect to see you again?" He inquired, leaning close enough to slip his hand around the hollow's waist, his strong hands groping a firm cheek.

Ulquiorra leaned in close to the man, standing on his tip toes to reach his ear as he whispered. "Oh, I'm sure you will." And with that the Hetaera turned from him teasingly and continued on down the row of market stalls, the bundle of devils helmet in hand.

The vision blurred quickly before Ichigo, and instinctively, as though he was about to be caught with his hand _in_ the cookie jar, he withdrew it from Ulquiorra's neck, looking down just as the hollow began to wake up.

"O-oi." He said, at a loss for what else to say.

"What is it?" Ulquiorra asked. "What do you want?"

"I was…. checking in on you." Ichigo said safely.

"I see." Ulquiorra sounded exhausted still. "Is that _thing_ still out there?" He sounded irritated.

"Yeah… Um, don't worry about it. Kon usually takes my body for me and he's a pain in the ass too."

"And he's a mod soul?"

"Yeah."

"Fine, if it aides us in any way, I will have no choice in the matter." Ulquiorra reasoned. He lifted his hand to his head, focusing on something it seemed and winced.

"You ok?" Ichigo asked, standing up from the bedside.

"I am…" He paused though. "I wonder if living in this world has reminded me of things that happened here…" it sounded like he'd said it more to himself than to Ichigo.

"Huh?"

"It's nothing, never mind." The Hollow yawned, and rolled over onto his side and away from Ichigo.

The boy stared down at him for a moment, but he knew he wasn't asleep yet. In fact, it dawned on Ichigo that he was testing the boy. Was he waiting for him to try and slip his fingers into his memories again? Yeah right, he was too smart for that. Ichigo grinned at his cleaver thinking and left the room.

"Oi, Ichigo!" He heard, turning to see Ikkaku and Yumichika standing in the door. He waved and smiled at them both, but that faded quickly.

"Hey! Yumichika! What's the big idea?" He growled at him.

The frumpy shinigami only giggled in response and rushed out the front door to escape Ichigo.

Ikkaku stared after them both and looked in at Renji, both of them sniggering at the scene.

Author's notes:

The study of life is Biology.

The old man is supposed to be Aristotle. His teacher was Plato. I wanted to include him because, while Plato studied the universe and what it signified (a little more religious), Aristotle studied tangible things, which he believed were the key to the universe. I don't know if that makes sense, but Ulquiorra always seems to doubt things that he can't see or touch, so Aristotle seemed like a better match to me. Also, I wanted Aristotle to be the only one in this entire fanfic (besides Orihime maybe) who understood Ulquiorra, in a way that seemed cautious. I like to think that Ulquiorra is always in control and can manipulate people, all except Aristotle. I wrote a lot, I'm sorry.

Ichor: Aristotle compared Ulquiorra to Aeneas because he's part Roman, and Aeneas was said to give rise to the Romans. Aeneas was also said to be the son of Aphrodite, and the God's have ichor in their blood, it's a mineral. So he's referring to Ulquiorra having special mineral blood in him from the Gods. I also wanted to compare him to Aphrodite as this even more beautiful and enchanting thing. I know, I'm silly. XD

Botany is the study of plants.

They called Ptolemy of Egypt a satrap, and Antigonos was a Satrap, it's basically someone who rules over a region.

Hekate was a Greek Goddess around which cults formed. They used devil's helmet (_Aconitum_) in ceremonies. It's also known as wolfsbane and monkshood, but I chose devils helmet for obvious reasons relating to Ulquiorra. :)

At that time, the Black Sea was called the Hospitable Sea.

Author's Comments:

At the start of this Ichigo reminded me of Ta-kun from Fooly Cooly, Ulquiorra is Haruko and Urahara is his pervy dad. XD Fun times.

I did a lot of looking around, and it seems that nobody really knows what Jinta and Ururu are. I'm gonna go with not human, that takes care of their innocent little eyes and ears. XD

OH NO! I did something bad. Ulquiorra's mod-soul is… a little more eccentric than he is. I've always wondered how to make him seem more excited about things, but that would be way to hard and out of character. I think this works just fine. XD I hope it didn't bug anyone. XD


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